


Happily

by ToriWritesStories



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - After College/University, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Characters in their twenties, Cheryl doesn't like Toni, College Age Cheryl Blossom, Drama, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Enemies to Lovers, Eventual Smut, F/F, Family Issues, Financial Issues, Fluff, Happy Ending, IKEA, Light Angst, Mild Hurt/Comfort, Moving, Nutritional Science Major!Cheryl Blossom, Partying, Programmer!Toni Topaz, Roommates, Secret Crush, Secret Relationship, Secrets, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Smut, Toni moves into a house with Veronica Betty and Cheryl
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-15
Updated: 2021-03-23
Packaged: 2021-03-24 05:08:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 33,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30067140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ToriWritesStories/pseuds/ToriWritesStories
Summary: Toni Topaz is moving to the city for her new job, and finds herself seeking a place to live on Craigslist. Thankfully, she manages to find a listing for a house where three college girls live: Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper, and Cheryl Blossom. Although Veronica and Betty seem pretty nice, Cheryl seems to hate Toni on principle. Toni is content to ignore it, but finds herself more and more intrigued by the gorgeous redhead whose room is just down the hall from hers.Sort of: Enemies to Lovers, new roommates edition!
Relationships: Cheryl Blossom/Toni Topaz
Comments: 133
Kudos: 170





	1. welcome to the city

**Author's Note:**

> Good evening everyone!  
> It's as good a time as ever for a new Choni story, right?!  
> For those of you who don't know me - hello! My name is Tori, I write a lot of femslash fanfic, and I've been writing for Choni for I think 2.5 years now? I'm also on Twitter @ToriWrtsStories :)
> 
> As for this story! The summary and the tags are about all you need to know going in! This story is quite a bit lighter than my recent story Crisp Trepidations, and I would put it somewhere between like What A Time and Some Rules Are Meant To Be Broken in terms of like fluff/drama/angst/smut lmfao. Maybe that only makes sense to me, I dunno lmao!
> 
> Regardless, yes, so this story is 20 chapters and is fully completed, capping out at just over 113,000 words! Updates will be every 2 days! I hope you guys will enjoy this one, all feedback here and on Twitter is always appreciated! Anyway, without further ado...
> 
> Enjoy!xx

Heavy droplets of rain were pattering against the hotel room window on a dreary Friday morning. It was the kind of weather that made one want to curl up under the blankets and ignore the looming to-do list that awaited upon waking. Under normal circumstances, that would probably be Toni Topaz right about now. Today, however, was not normal circumstances.

She sat at the desk in the hotel room, looking intently at herself in the makeup mirror she’d pulled out of her suitcase earlier and adding the finishing touches to her makeup look. She wanted to look her best this morning.

As she set down her tube of dark pink, glossy lipstick, she looked into her own brown eyes and ran her fingers through her wavy, dark brown hair. It was strange seeing it all one color for the first time in four-odd years, but as much as she missed the pop of pink that stood out against her dark skin, she was sure she would get used to it. Maybe once she was really settled in, she could change it again.

Deciding that she looked presentable enough, Toni checked the time on her phone and noted that it was just after nine in the morning, giving her plenty of time to get to the house. Shoving the device into her back pocket, she pushed the desk chair out as she rose to her feet and scanned the messy hotel room for her purse, which she located on the nightstand.

As she readied herself to leave, her phone rang out loudly. Eyebrows furrowed, she retrieved it once again and saw the name of her best friend flash across the screen.

“Hey Sweet Pea,” she greeted as she answered the call.

“How’s the city?” Sweet Pea asked her.

“Rainy,” Toni answered, glancing at the window again, where the rain seemed to be coming down even harder than before. “Which reminds me, I should probably dig up my umbrella before I leave…” She started to dig around in one of her many bags, where she was pretty sure she’d tucked her umbrella away. “I have way too much shit,” she mumbled. “So what’s up?”

“Oh, just checking on you,” Sweet Pea admitted. “It was so weird hearing the apartment quiet this morning. Fangs said so, too. He was running late for work because of it.”

Toni snickered, finally finding her umbrella in her bag and pulling it out. “You guys looking for someone to fill the room yet?” she wondered, checking that she had everything she needed before heading toward the hotel room door.

“We’re going to start looking soon. We’re not assholes, Toni. You left yesterday.”

“I know, but I don’t want you guys to get fucked with rent,” Toni told her friend with a frown as she made her way through the dull hotel hallway, the puke-green patterned flooring encouraging her to hurry out.

“We’ll be fine for a month,” Sweet Pea insisted. “Plus, I’m finally getting reassigned in a couple weeks.”

“Yeah, you excited to go from intern to full time employee?” Toni asked with a chuckle.

“Definitely. What about you? You nervous for Monday?”

Toni shrugged. “Not really. The work’s all right up my alley, based on the posting, and they clearly thought I was right for the job. I guess it’ll be weird since I haven’t met any of my bosses in person yet, but. As long as everyone I’m working with are decent people, I think it’ll be fine.”

“Good thing you can get along with pretty much anyone,” Sweet Pea told her with a laugh.

“I mean, I _can_ , but I hope I don’t have to force myself to get along with anyone intolerable.”

“Fair. So, you headed to that apartment you found on Craigslist?”

“It’s a house, actually,” Toni told him.

“Oh?”

“Yeah, I was surprised, too. I think it was just a mistake though, when I called the girl who put up the listing yesterday, she seemed surprised that I thought it was an apartment,” Toni said with a laugh, standing in the elevator now as it took its time reaching the first floor of the hotel. “But yeah, I’m headed there now.”

“So it’s not too far out of the city?” Sweet Pea wondered.

“No. I mean, I can’t walk to work or anything,” she said with a chuckle, “but it’s right up the street from a bus station, so shouldn’t have an issue getting everywhere I need.”

“That’s good. You think you’re going to be able to survive living with a house full of girls?” Sweet Pea asked with a smirk.

Toni scoffed. She was walking out of the hotel now, and she opened up her umbrella as she made her way to the nearby bus top. “As if living with two guys is easier than living with three girls. Girls are way cleaner and more organized. I’m going to be fine.”

“You’ve literally never lived with any girls.”

“I did freshman year,” Toni argued. “In the dorms.”

“You hated your roommate.”

“Well, yeah, but she was clean and that was all I really cared about,” Toni insisted, standing by the bus stop with her umbrella over her head. Multiple people were passing by her with their own umbrellas, walking fast to get wherever they needed to go. The road was packed with cars as well, an unsurprising amount of traffic considering the weather, even if it was past the morning rush. “It’s going to be fine. And I really need to make a good first impression, because if they don’t think it’s a good fit, I have to find somewhere else like, asap.”

“Well, like I said. You get along with everyone, so I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Sweet Pea insisted.

“Yeah.”

“I should get going. Good luck, text me how it goes.”

“Thanks, Sweets. I will. Talk later,” Toni said, as she saw the bus approaching the stop. She hung up the call and slipped her phone into her purse. The bus pulled to a stop in front of her and she climbed on and closed her umbrella, finding that it was pretty full and that she had to stand. She blew out a breath as she glanced up at the list of stops that were printed out above the windows. The house was on a street that was about eight stops away—not too bad.

It probably wouldn’t have been too long of a ride if it weren’t for the rain, but as it was, she got off at the right stop a few minutes before ten, which was when she was supposed to arrive. She opened her umbrella again and quickly walked down the street. It was right on the edge of the city—at least that what it seemed like. It was line with thin houses that stretched an unclear distance backwards. Toni had never lived in a house at all, so the prospect of doing so was a little strange, but also exciting.

She found the house with the right number—315—and closed her umbrella again as she came up under the awning over the porch. Shaking it out, she rested the umbrella against the old brick wall and then reached for the doorbell, pressing it firmly before straightening up. She needed to make a good impression—like she’d told Sweet Pea, if this didn’t work, she was going to be pressed to find another place.

The door swung open after a moment, revealing a Latina woman with straightened, jet black hair falling just to her shoulders. She wore a black dress with tights underneath them, and black heels. Toni wasn’t sure why she was wearing heels inside her own house, but she didn’t question it as she smiled at the girl, who was giving her an expectant look. “Hi,” she greeted, “Veronica Lodge?”

“Yes,” Veronica answered, before a look of realization came to her face. “You must be Toni Topaz?”

“That’s me,” Toni confirmed, keeping up her smile. She felt relieved as Veronica mirrored her expression.

“Great, come on in,” Veronica invited, taking a step back. “Sorry, the weather is totally throwing me off today. I’m not a fan of the rain.”

“I feel you,” Toni agreed, stepping into the house. She felt a little underdressed compared to Veronica. She was wearing high waisted, tight, dark wash jeans and a white t-shirt that’s hem was tucked into the pants. The simple look was topped off with some jewelry and her magenta raincoat, which she pulled off as Veronica gestured to a coat rack that hung by the door. She glanced around the entryway as she hung her coat up. To her left was a dining room that had an archway connected to what she assumed was the kitchen, and to her right was a staircase. Up ahead, she caught a glimpse of a living room. For a city house, it seemed pretty nice. “This is a really nice place.”

“Right?” Veronica agreed with a smile. “Yeah, we lucked out with this place when we moved in a couple years ago. The woman who owns it hasn’t raised the price at all since we started renting.”

“Wow, that’s lucky,” Toni commented, as Veronica gestured for her to follow her further into the house.

“Yeah. That’s one reason why the rent’s not as bad as you’d expect,” Veronica told her. “I figured I’ll give you a tour of the place, show you where your room would be and everything, and then we can talk more details?”

“Sounds good to me,” Toni agreed with a nod. She hadn’t ever done something like this, so if there were standard procedures, she wasn’t sure of them. Although Veronica couldn’t be any older than Toni, if she had to guess, so she wasn’t sure how much experience the other girl would have with this sort of thing either.

“Right, so that was the dining room obviously, it connects through to the kitchen, which is also right up here to our left,” Veronica said, gesturing to the kitchen. “It’s sort of small, but we don’t usually have more than one person wanting or willing to cook at a time, so it’s not been an issue. You cook?”

“Not really. I can cook like, one thing,” Toni answered with a little laugh.

Veronica smiled. “My specialty is a dish I like to call ‘order-from-la-Postmates.’” Toni laughed at that, as Veronica’s smile widened a little and she gestured to their right, where there was a not too cramped living room, although it wasn’t exactly big either. There was a big, cushy looking couch facing a mounted flat-screen TV, which was over a very old looking fireplace that didn’t look touched. There was also a coffee table in the room and a couple of chairs up against the back wall. Also on the back wall, between the kitchen and the living room, was a door with a big glass window. “So, living room. TV courtesy of _Betty_ —it was a high school graduation present from her parents.”

“Damn,” Toni muttered, imagining getting any kind of high school graduation present, let alone a giant flat screen TV.

Veronica laughed a little at her response. “Yeah. Nice gift, right? Anyway. Back door. We have a tiny little yard, and the garage is back there too. It goes out to this back road behind the house. Do you have a car?”

“Nope,” Toni answered with a shake of her head.

“Okay. It’s a small garage and driveway, but between all of us, we only have two cars right now, and they fit just fine. We managed to squeeze three before, too,” Veronica said with a shrug. “Okay so.” She walked into the living room, where there was a small hallway with three doors. “My bedroom, Betty’s bedroom, our bathroom.”

“Okay,” Toni said with a nod, noting that she would not be sharing a bathroom with either Veronica or this Betty. Veronica started back out of the living room and back toward the stairs. As they approached them, someone was walking downstairs, and as Toni looked up at the woman walking down them, she felt her breath caught in her throat.

The woman had long, red hair and very fair skin. She wore warm eye makeup and bold red lipstick. Hugging her legs and waist were black skinny jeans. She wore red, heeled boots that stretched up to just below her knees, and a red and white blouse. She also had a red leather backpack slung over her shoulders. Toni blinked quickly, snapping herself out of staring at the woman, who was reaching the bottom of the staircase now and was looking at Veronica with a dark gaze.

“What is this?” the woman demanded.

Veronica sighed. “Cheryl, this is Toni. Remember? The girl coming to look at the extra room.”

The woman—Cheryl—didn’t even bother to look at Toni, which almost made Toni scoff, but she was trying to be likeable, so she did her best to smile anyway. “Right.” Cheryl did not sound happy. “I didn’t realize she was coming today.”

“Yeah, well, you know that we need someone fast,” Veronica reminded the redhead, crossing her arms over her chest. “You’re the one who didn’t want to pitch in to cover the extra quarter of rent for next month.”

Cheryl looked bored now, as she walked past the two of them, not saying anything as she made her way to the kitchen.

Veronica looked apologetically at Toni. “Cheryl Blossom. Roommate number three. I’m so sorry about her. She’s… well, she’s not always _this_ … bitchy.”

“She doesn’t like the weather either?” Toni joked, as she followed Veronica up the stairs. Veronica snorted a little laugh.

“Something like that.” They reached the landing at the top of the stairs, and it was clear that the upstairs of the house was also pretty small. “Okay, so laundry room is here by the stairs. Lucky thing about having a room upstairs, no carrying baskets up and down.” Toni nodded in agreement. “So, down this hallway. Cheryl’s room is the one at the end, the bathroom is here, and then this…” Veronica trailed off as she opened the third door, which was closest to the stairs, revealing the small, bare bedroom inside. “Is the empty room.”

Toni looked around the small space. It smelled a little like perfume in the room, making her assume that its last occupant had recently moved out. But the carpet in the room was all vacuumed and everything looked nice and clean.

“There’s a small closet in there too,” Veronica said, walking into the room with Toni on her heel. On the wall to the right was a door to a closet that was definitely small, but plenty big for Toni’s purposes. “Nice, right?”

“Yeah, it’s about the same size as my old place,” Toni said with a nod. “I like it.”

“You can check out the bathroom, too,” Veronica said, leaving the room and walking over to the bathroom. “Cheryl is pretty clean, so the bathroom usually stays that way.” Veronica opened the bathroom door, revealing the small space. There was not much counter space, but there was a medicine cabinet and two drawers, as well as a cupboard below the sink. Of course, there was also a toilet with some storage in a cabinet above it, and then there was a bath and shower combo. It was pretty clean. “Pretty sure this drawer is empty,” Veronica said, opening one of them and confirming that was empty. “Unfortunately, I’m not sure the status of the rest of the storage spaces. Cheryl has a lot of stuff. But she can make room, she only pays for half of the bathroom anyway, even if Josie was letting her use more than half.”

“I don’t have a lot of stuff,” Toni said, although one drawer may be cutting it close. “So Josie is the one who moved out?”

“Yep,” Veronica confirmed with a nod, as they left the bathroom and started for the stairs again. “She’s a musician. Just got signed for an album at a recording studio across the city, and she didn’t want to deal with the drive. Plus, she was the only one of us not in school anymore, so she didn’t really have any incentive to stay on this side of the city.”

“Oh,” Toni said in surprise, “you guys go to university near here?”

“Yeah, Clements University,” Veronica answered with a smile. “It’s like, three bus stops away. Another reason we got so lucky with this place. What about you? Not to be invasive or anything, but you do have some sort of income?”

Toni laughed a little, expecting this question. “Yeah. Well, I actually just graduated with my BS in the spring, from the university in my hometown, in Oregon, so I’m _done_ with school. I spent the summer working and applying to jobs in my field, and that’s what brought me to the city. This finance company—Corinth’s Commerce—got back to me like, a week ago asking if I could start this upcoming Monday. So, job’s confirmed, I start Monday, and at that point, yes, I will have an income.”

Veronica nodded interestedly as she led her to the living room, where she invited her to sit down on the couch with her. Cheryl was still in the kitchen but seemed to ignore the pair. “So you work in finance?” Veronica wondered. “I’m doing a finance and business degree.”

“Oh cool,” Toni said with a nod, “I’m actually not working _in_ finance. My degree is in computer science. I’m on the software development team, working on the company’s website and app and stuff.”

“Oh, that sounds definitely way more fun than finance,” Veronica joked with a laugh. “Okay, so I guess that explains why you’re looking for a place to live on Craigslist, because it was so last minute?”

“Yeah. I can’t afford an apartment by myself and even if I could find a roommate to enter into a lease with, I didn’t think I had time to get a lease approved and everything in time. So I figured this would just be faster and easier,” Toni answered.

“Cool. Well, you don’t seem like a creep or anything. That was the biggest worry I had about Craigslist, but we couldn’t gather the money for the difference in rent for next month, so we got desperate. Which I hope explains well enough why I put the listing on Craigslist.”

Toni chuckled a little, nodding. “Yeah, totally.”

“Also, I figure we should get some other things out in the open,” Veronica said, “just to make sure, that like… we’re on the same page, like, socially.”

“Socially?” Toni asked, lifting a curious eyebrow.

“She means,” Cheryl said suddenly from the kitchen, surprising both Toni and Veronica, “that Betty’s boyfriend is over here half the time, we—especially Veronica—like to go out to parties and we’re back late a lot, and I’m a lesbian. If any of those things aren’t okay with you, you should find somewhere else to live.”

Toni, still surprised at the firm explanation from the redhead, blinked before hurrying to say, “Yeah no, that’s all fine. I like to party, and I don’t mind about people coming over or anything.” She didn’t know why her hands were so clammy all of the sudden, but she figured it had to do with the quirked eyebrow that Cheryl was giving her. “Also, I’m bi, so totally doesn’t bother me.”

“Cool,” Veronica said. “You didn’t come off to me as someone who would care about that stuff, but you know, safe to get it all out there. Again. Craigslist.”

Toni chuckled, looking back at the black haired girl, because Cheryl had gone back to ignoring them. “I get it.”

“Cool. Well, honestly, I think this was like fate or something, because you’re the first person who reached out to me, and I’m pretty sure you’re a great fit. Pretty sure we lucked out,” Veronica said with a chuckle.

“Yeah, same,” Toni agreed. “So… how do we do this?”

“Well, the lease is under my name, but I do have a lease addendum, though, for new occupants, that I need you to fill out and sign. It’s basically just a notice to the owner that you’re paying rent to me and stuff,” Veronica said seriously. “It’s mostly a formality, but we do need it in writing, you know, in case you…”

“Don’t pay you, yeah, I got it,” Toni said with a chuckle. “Okay, cool. Well, when can we get all of that done? I have a hotel room a bit further into the city with all my stuff, and I reserved another night there ahead of time, so I can stay there through tonight and extend it if necessary, but like I said, I start work on Monday.”

“Yeah,” Veronica acknowledged with a nod, “well tomorrow is fine for you to bring all your stuff, but probably you should meet Betty and sign the lease addendum today… would that work?”

“Yeah, I’m open all day,” Toni answered with a nod.

“Cool. Betty has class until like four today. Maybe we can all grab dinner or something?” Veronica suggested, glancing over at the kitchen, where Cheryl seemed to be zipping up her backpack.

She looked up with an uninterested look. “Yeah, I’ll pass,” she said.

“Cher, don’t you want to—”

“She’s fine,” Cheryl said, waving her hand at Toni. “I don’t care. I’m just glad your stupid Craigslist ad didn’t attract some creepy troglodyte.” Veronica sighed. “I’m going to class.” Cheryl put her backpack back on and started out the back door of the house, presumably going to the garage to get her car.

“Again, sorry about her,” Veronica said with a groan. “She’s pretty upset about Josie moving out.”

“Oh,” Toni said, frowning. “They’re close?”

“Yeah,” Veronica confirmed with a nod. “And Cheryl has a hard time with new people. But I promise, you’ll be fine. She’ll warm up to you.”

Toni shrugged. “I’m not worried about it.”

“Okay. Well, I have your number, so how about I text you when I hear back from Betty about dinner tonight, and we can meet up. I’ll bring the addendum, and we can get to know each other a little. Sound good?”

“Yep, just let me know time and place,” Toni agreed, as the two of them stood up from the couch.

“Will do. Thanks so much for coming by, Toni.”

* * *

Toni showed up to a little Italian bistro halfway between the hotel and the house around five-thirty. It was still raining, so she’d left early and managed to get there only two minutes late, even despite the end of day traffic. It was going to take some getting used to, living in the city. But there were things about it that Toni liked, like the fact that there was accessible public transportation that wasn’t twenty dollar Uber rides. It was also nice that everything she could need was in a pretty small radius around her.

This bistro was pretty cozy too, which was nice for the weather. Toni found herself looking around the small restaurant, and it only took her a minute to spot the back of Veronica’s head. She was sitting at a four person, square table that was made up with three place settings. Across from Veronica sat a fair skinned girl with a high, blonde ponytail.

Toni headed toward them, smiling as the blonde noticed her and nodded to Veronica, who turned around and met Toni’s eyes. “Toni!” Veronica exclaimed. “So glad you found it okay.”

“Yeah, wasn’t too hard to fine,” Toni assured her. “You must be Betty?”

“Yes, Betty Cooper,” the blonde introduced, extended a hand that Toni shook firmly. “I love your coat.”

“Thanks,” Toni responded with a smile, slipping said coat off of her body as she sat in front of the third place setting.

“I’m so sorry again, about the fact that Cheryl’s not here,” Veronica said. “I tried to talk to her again, but no luck.”

“It’s fine,” Toni insisted.

“So, Toni, where are you from again?” Betty asked. “Veronica mentioned that you went to college out of the city.”

“Yeah, I went to Riverside University. It’s surrounded basically by a college town, which is where I grew up. It’s about a two hour drive out of the city,” Toni explained.

“It’s a big change, huh, coming to the city,” Betty said.

“Oh yeah, definitely. But I think I’m gonna like it here,” Toni admitted with a smile. Suddenly, a waiter was approaching them and handing the three of them menus and getting their drink orders. Veronica ordered a glass of wine, so Toni took that to mean that the ladies wouldn’t mind if she also ordered a drink, so she got herself a glass as well.

Betty asked about Toni’s job in the city as they waited for their drinks, and Toni told both women about the job. She was actually really excited about it, so she didn’t mind talking about it for the second time that day. Toni found out that Betty was a journalism major and had just finished a summer interning at a magazine company in the city.

Both women seemed pretty nice, and Toni was actually really relieved. After seeing how unwelcoming Cheryl was, she was glad that her other two roommates would be a lot easier to get along with, even if Cheryl was the one that she had to share a bathroom with.

They ordered their dinner and continued to chat mostly about the city. Veronica told Toni about some of her favorite clubbing spots and bars, and Betty rolled her eyes at the dark haired girl and also mentioned a cute movie theater she liked and her favorite coffee shop. The two girls seemed really different, but Toni got the vibe that they were really good friends based on the way they talked to each other.

After they ate, Veronica grabbed a folded piece of paper out of her large purse and unfolded it out on the table. “So, here’s the lease addendum I mentioned. Again, it just confirms your share of the rent. It’s basically as official as I could get with myself being the one on the lease. Worked it out with the owner and everything. It’s nothing too serious, but feel free to read it.”

Toni skimmed it, agreeing with Veronica’s assessment that it was somewhat official, but mostly a courtesy. As she nodded, reaching the end of the document, Veronica placed a pen on the table, and Toni grabbed it and signed her name across the bottom of the document.

“Well, there we go!” Betty said brightly, smiling widely at Toni. “You’re officially ready to move in tomorrow. Speaking of! Veronica mentioned that you don’t have a car, and that your stuff is at a hotel? I wanted to offer to pick you and your stuff up tomorrow.”

Toni widened her eyes a little in surprise. “Actually yeah, that would be really great.”

“I did have one question,” Veronica said, “so you don’t have any furniture or anything for your room?”

Toni shook her head. “No, I didn’t want to bother with moving anything, so I got rid of all of it. But I have an air mattress and I’ll pick up some furniture at some point soon. Like I said before, it was a fast move.”

“Yeah, I figured, I just wanted to make sure you had something to sleep on other than the floor,” Veronica told her with a gentle laugh. “Glad to hear about the air mattress.”

The waiter approached them then with the three checks, as per Betty’s request earlier in the meal, and each of them paid for their portion. Toni would have suggested that if Betty hadn’t, so she was glad that she did.

“Alright,” Betty said as they all got up after dinner. “Toni, I’m going to have Veronica text you my number. Just let me know what hotel you’re in and what time you’re going to be checking out in the morning, and I’ll swing by tomorrow.”

Toni smiled thankfully. “Sounds great, thanks, Betty.”

“Of course! It was so nice to meet you.”

“Yeah, you too,” Toni returned. “I’ll see you guys tomorrow, thanks again!”

* * *

“They seem pretty nice,” Toni said into the phone later that night, as she wiped her makeup from her face. “Well, two of them do. The third one… I don’t know what’s up with her, but she’s not very friendly.”

“That sucks,” Fangs, one of Toni’s other good friends from back home, replied. “So it’s a four bedroom, two bathroom house? Which one do you share a bathroom with?”

“Guess,” Toni joked.

“The not very friendly one,” Fangs said with a chuckle. “Figures. Otherwise it’d be too perfect, right?”

“Guess so,” Toni agreed. “I am really glad I found this listing, though. Like, it could be _so_ much worse. I have no problem putting up with college partying and boyfriends coming over, and even having one roommate hate me for no reason. There are so many things that would be worse than that.”

“True. I still can’t believe you looked on Craigslist, though. I finally talked Sweet Pea out of putting our ad there,” Fangs said, and Toni could hear the distaste in his voice. “I posted in some of the university Facebook groups. I’d rather get a junior or senior in college than a complete random, even if we are just alumni now.”

“That’s probably smart. Yeah, I definitely lucked out for Craigslist.” She tossed her makeup wipe in the trash and ran her hand through her wavy hair. “Well, thanks for calling and checking in, but I’m sure you had a better night planned… like maybe with Joaquin?”

“Maybe,” Fangs said, somewhat disinterestedly.

“Did something happen?”

“I don’t know. We haven’t been talking much this week. We had a fight last week, I’m not sure what’s going on now,” Fangs admitted.

“I’m sorry,” Toni apologized, furrowing her eyebrows. Fangs hadn’t mentioned the fight at all earlier in the week. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, it’s fine. Even if we don’t work it out, it’s fine. It’s not like we’ve been dating for long and, well, he’s still majorly in his partying phase. Like, more so than I ever was, surprisingly. I’m actually a little worried about him,” Fangs admitted.

Toni let out a sigh, walking out of the bathroom and to the big hotel bed. “Sorry, Fangs, that sucks.”

“Yeah. But I’ll let you go so you can get some sleep, you sound tired.”

“Running around a brand new city will do that to you.” Toni had spent a large part of the day poking around at places near her soon to be new home, as well as testing the bus route from the house to her office building. She was definitely exhausted.

“I’m sure. Well, call and update us later this weekend, okay?”

“Will do. Thanks again for checking in. And tell Sweets I’ll call him tomorrow.”

“I will. Night, T.”

“Night, Fangs.”

Toni hung up the phone and practically collapsed into her bed. She was grateful for her friends checking in on her today, that was for sure, but she was also surprisingly excited, albeit a little nervous, to move into her new place the following day. Thankfully, though, neither her nerves nor her excitement were enough to keep her from sleeping.

* * *

“Hey,” Toni greeted, opening her hotel door to reveal Betty, who was wearing the same high pony as the previous day, as well as light colored jeans and a pink sweater. “Thanks again for coming, I got everything all packed up and we should be able to take it all in one trip.”

“Okay,” Betty said with a nod, walking into the room and looking down at all of the bags on the floor. “Yeah, not too much stuff.” Toni loaded herself up with half of her bags, and Betty was able to grab the rest, and they left the hotel room after Toni verified that she’d grabbed everything. “It’s honestly such a relief that you found our listing on Craigslist. I was so worried we were going to end up with someone so weird as our roommate.”

Toni chuckled. “I feel the same way, trust me.” They walked down the green carpeted hallway to the elevator, and when they finally reached the first floor, Betty led her outside to where her car was parked in front. It was an older, beige station wagon that looked like it had seen better days, but it was a car, which was more than Toni had.

Betty popped her trunk and they loaded up Toni’s bags, and then Toni quickly ran back into the hotel to checkout of the hotel. When it was all taken care of, she walked back out to Betty’s car, where Betty was already seated in front of the wheel, and she slipped into the passenger seat. “All good?” Betty asked.

“Yep, ready to go,” Toni confirmed.

The drive wasn’t quite as long as the bus ride from the previous day, and they filled the ride with a somewhat boring conversation about how the weather was a bit nicer today—still overcast, but no rain yet. Betty told Toni to get used to the rain in the city, but Toni was sure it couldn’t be too much worse than where she was from, considering it was only two hours away.

When they got to the house, Veronica ran out back to greet them and then she and Betty helped Toni unload the car and get everything up to her new room.

“Do you want any help unpacking?” Veronica asked once all of the stuff was strewn across the floor.

“No thanks. Can’t unpack that much until I get some furniture anyway. I’ll just get the closet and the bed setup and put my bathroom stuff away,” Toni said with a shake of her head.

“Okay. Well, we’ll probably all just be hanging around the house today,” Veronica said, “so we can totally hang whenever you’re free, if you’re up for it.”

“Yeah, and my boyfriend—Archie—is coming over, so you can meet him,” Betty said with a smile.

“Cool,” Toni said with a nod, actually hoping that the two girls would leave her alone now to unpack. “Well, I’ll just get to this. Thanks again for the help.”

“Right,” Veronica said with a nod, “we’ll leave you be. See you downstairs later.”

They left the room then, and Toni blew out a slow breath as she closed the door behind them, looking around at all her stuff that she had to find places for. She wasn’t looking forward to buying furniture, but she knew that she shouldn’t live out of suitcases forever, especially now that she was about to actually be working a good paying job.

She spent the next hour or so blowing up her air mattress, making her makeshift bed up, and unloading all of her clothes and things into her small closet. Then she gathered all of her toiletries and makeup and headed for the bathroom, hoping that she could find enough space for all of it. She could keep the makeup in her room once she got a desk, but until then, she would need to use the bathroom.

When she got into the bathroom, she set all of her things on the counter as she opened the drawer on the right, confirming that it was the empty one. She began to fill it up with her things, but it became full a lot more quickly than she’d expected. She opened the medicine cabinet and saw that it was full of perfumes and lipsticks tubes. Turning and glancing over at the shower, she saw that there was a little metal shelf thing hanging from the shower head, and she happily slotted her shower products into the side that was empty.

That left her with only a few haircare products and things left to find places for, and as she was poking around in the rest of the storage spaces—which were all pretty much full—she suddenly heard a throat clear behind her. Jumping up in surprise, Toni turned and saw Cheryl looking at her with raised eyebrows.

“What are you doing?” Cheryl asked coldly.

“Uh, looking for a place for my hair straightener and the rest of this stuff,” Toni admitted. “Any chance you could move around some of your stuff? It won’t take up that much space.”

Cheryl rolled here eyes, walking into the bathroom. Toni stepped to the side as Cheryl crouched down and opened the cabinet, moving some things around. When she stood back up, there was an exactly perfect amount of space for the few things Toni had left on the counter.

“Thanks,” Toni chimed, before quickly putting them away. As she closed the cabinet, she realized that Cheryl was still waiting behind her, looking annoyed. “Did you need something?”

“Yeah, to use the bathroom,” Cheryl snapped.

“Right,” Toni said with an awkward laugh, stepping out of the bathroom and allowing Cheryl to walk back in, “sorry. And look, I’m sorry for imposing on your space at all, you know, I just—”

Cheryl cleared her throat, effectively cutting her off. Toni’s eyebrow rose in annoyance. “Look, we may be roommates now, and you may be sharing half of my bathroom space, but we don’t have to be friends, okay? I have more than enough already.”

Before Toni could even think of anything to respond, the door closed in her face, and Toni rolled her eyes. “Well, okay then,” she muttered, walking back to her room. She sighed as she observed the mess of bags that still needed to be unpacked once she had some actual furniture.

She resolved herself to putting the job of unpacking out of her mind until she could actually do it and decided she may as well go downstairs and join the new roommates that actually _liked_ her. As for Cheryl… Toni would have to figure out how to deal with that situation later.


	2. the new job

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toni's getting settled into her new job and learning things about the girl she's now calling her roommates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good afternoon everyone! Happy Wednesday! I know it's Riverdale day - I hope this chapter holds you guys over until Riverdale tonight hahaha. I'm not sure if I'll be watching it tonight, my gf and I are staying at her parents' place, and they have Dish, so we might record it and watch it after everyone goes to be haha.
> 
> Anyway! Thank you guys so much for the response to the first chapter of this story, you guys showered me with comments and I really appreciated it! <3
> 
> If anyone is interested, I built the roommates' house from this story in The Sims 4 and I posted a tour of it on my Twitter! The tweet with the video is under my pinned tweet if anyone wants to check it out :) @ToriWrtsStories
> 
> Without any further ado, please enjoy!x

In the two days that Toni had lived with her new roommates so far, she had learned quite a few things about them.

Number one: Betty was the nice girl. She dreamed of white picket fences and big houses with green lawns. Toni knew that she shouldn’t judge her based on knowing her for only two days, but that’s just how she came across. Not to mention, when Toni met her boyfriend—Archie—with his shaggy red hair and puppy-dog-like smile and wide eyes, she could literally picture them living the suburban dream.

Number two: Veronica was the party girl, judging by the number of drinks she’d had on Saturday night when it was just the five of them, the roommates and Archie, at the house, but also somehow the responsible one. It seemed like Betty helped out a lot, too, but when Veronica explained to Toni the groceries situation, it was very clear to her that the darker haired girl was very stringent on the few rules that the roommates had. The main rule was about food. Certain items were shared, like the almond milk that apparently all three girls drank regularly, while others strictly belonged to a single person. Those items were stored in certain parts of the fridge. Toni’s corner of the fridge was the one that was currently empty. As far as pantry foods, the same rules held, and each girl had a section of the pantry space for their foods.

Number three: Toni had a big legacy to live up to. Josie McCoy, the girl who had lived in her room previously, had been friends with the group through their first three years of college. More than that, all of these girls had been friends and _living_ with each other for so long. Betty and Cheryl had gone to the same high school and had met Veronica and Josie, who'd also gone to high school together, when they came to college. And despite the fact that Betty and Veronica seemed so close, and Toni knew that Cheryl and Josie were also really close, it seemed like Betty and Veronica also really missed having Josie around, so Toni knew that she was really important to all of them.

And lastly, number four: Cheryl really meant it when she said that she didn’t want to be friends with Toni. She had said literally two words to her since the bathroom on Saturday morning, and they were “Excuse me,” said when the two of them almost ran into each other on the stairs. They hadn’t been said in a nice tone, either.

As annoying as that was, Toni wasn’t getting hung up on it. She wanted her new roommates to like her, of course, so that her living situation didn’t have to be miserable, but she wasn’t in the city to party and make friends. She was here for her first job experience, and she wanted to take it seriously, which is why she was up way too early on Monday morning, picking out her best business casual outfit—black slacks, a white top, and a blue blazer—and doing her makeup and curling her hair.

She wanted to pack herself a lunch for her first day, but she hadn’t gone out to get groceries the day before—a mistake, she realized now—so she resolved herself to scoping out the options around the office.

She checked the time and the estimated distance to the office via the bus countless times as she ate a banana for breakfast—one of the shared items in the house, and then she finally left when her phone told her she would show up twenty minutes early.

She actually found herself getting a little less nervous during her walk to the bus stop, the bus ride, and then the short walk to the office building. She silently hyped herself up as she entered the building and headed to the elevator.

When she reached the fifth floor, she found herself in a lobby like area, and a woman at a desk was typing furiously at her keyboard. Toni hesitantly approached her, waiting patiently for her to be done with whatever she was typing. “Can I help you, ma’am?” the woman asked, not even looking away from the computer.

“Yes, I’m Toni Topaz. I’m the new software engineer… I think I’m looking for the UI/UX team manager,” Toni told her, fumbling with her phone for a moment as she tried to find the guy’s name. “Um… Forsythe Jones?”

“I’ll let him know you’re here,” the woman said, her fingers stopping their incessant typing for long enough to pick up her phone and presumably send a message to this Forsythe. After a few minutes, a glass door to the left of the desk swung open, and a guy wearing jeans, a black t-shirt, and a beanie pushed open the door.

“Topaz?” he asked, pointing at her.

“Yes,” Toni answered, feeling very much overdressed. “Forsythe?”

“That’s me,” the guy answered with a smile, beckoning her to the door. “I know it’s weird, but everyone here calls me Jughead.”

“I hope you gave yourself that nickname,” Toni joked, getting a laugh from _Jughead_.

“Actually, my dad did, but I like it way better that Forsythe. So come on in, this is the development wing of Corinth’s. I’m sure you gathered that much already,” Jughead told her. He took her into an open style office, with many desks and tables pushed up next to each other without cubicle walls around them. The more modern setup, as Toni saw it. “Each cluster of tables is a different team. You and I, and the rest of the User Interface and Experience team, are over here to the right. Well, _some_ of them aren’t here yet, but yeah.” He brought her over to a cluster of five desks, all of which were empty. “The one at the end is mine, as manager. Yours is this one here. Company computer should be all setup already. Username is just first and last name, you’ll be prompted to change your password once you log on.”

“Cool,” Toni said with a nod, setting her purse down at her desk.

“Yeah, so, onboarding. One of our team members took it upon herself to streamline the process, so you’ll see a file on your computer called _onboarding_. It’s basically a walkthrough checklist to get yourself setup with the environment. Should just take you the day. Tomorrow, we’ll get you caught up on the site and the app, and you’ll be getting the hang of everything by Wednesday.”

Toni sucked in a breath. “Sounds great. I’m really looking forward to it.”

“Great,” Jughead said with a grin. “Yeah, so, you can feel free to get settled and start the onboarding. I have a meeting in a few minutes, so I’ll be out for a while, but everyone should be showing up pretty soon. If you have any questions, just ask them, everyone’s super friendly, really.”

“Alright, will do. Thanks, ah, Jughead,” Toni said, lifting an eyebrow as she said the nickname, not sure it was really an appropriate thing to call her _boss_. Jughead gave her a smile and then headed off across the office.

Shaking her head a little, Toni settled in at her desk, noticing that it was much more barren than her coworkers’ desks, which were covered with little fidget toys and framed pictures. She made a mental note to bring some stuff to make her space look a little less boring.

She started the onboarding process pretty much right away, not sure what else there was to do really, and was immediately absorbed in the task. It was about half an hour later that she was distracted by the arrival of two guys. They both wore jeans and t-shirts and looked quite a lot like the many white guys that Toni was used to dealing with in her college classes. She tried not to roll her eyes, because she knew that she should’ve expected this in the development department of a finance company.

“Hey,” one of them greeted, drawing Toni’s gaze, “you’re Toni?”

“Yes,” Toni said, standing and extending a hand to the guy who had greeted her, “Toni Topaz. And you both are?”

They supplied their names: Peter and Alan. Toni found them both very… uninteresting, but they seemed mildly interested in her, asking her where she was from and where she went to school. She supplied all the information, trying not to read into their questions, and then she excused herself back to doing the onboarding document. She glanced up once more as they settled down in their desks across from Toni’s, and then she curiously glanced around the whole office. Yeah, most of the teams looked a lot like hers.

Sighing internally, she continued with her process.

She was distracted again only a little while later, when the desk next to hers was suddenly occupied, and she glanced up to see a woman with dark skin and tightly braided black hair, with a few blue braids woven into it. She was wearing an outfit similar to Toni’s—slacks and a blouse—as well as dangly earrings.

“Hey,” the woman greeted Toni, “Toni Topaz?”

“That’s me,” Toni confirmed with a nod, “and you are?”

“Peaches,” the woman responded with a grin.

Toni lifted an eyebrow. “The nicknames continue.”

“Actually, mine’s not even a nickname,” Peaches told her, settling into her desk and starting to login to her computer. “I know, it’s sad.”

“I guess I shouldn’t judge,” Toni said, “my best friends go by Sweet Pea and Fangs.”

“Honestly, I love that for them.”

“So I guess you’re the team member who streamlined the onboarding process, huh?” Toni inquired, glancing back at the document open on her computer.

“That’s me,” Peaches confirmed. “When they hired me, it was total mess. It’s like some of these guys have never heard of documentation.”

“You know,” Alan said from over the desks, “there is such thing as too much documentation.”

“Uh yeah, and there’s also such thing as not enough documentation,” Peaches said back, rolling her eyes as Toni smiled a little. Peaches leaned closer to Toni so she could whisper, “Don’t worry. I promise they’re tolerable.”

“That’s good. I don’t know why, but I wasn’t expecting the office to be so…” She looked around again, and Peaches lifted an eyebrow.

“White male?” she asked quietly. “Yeah, that’s our reality, unfortunately. I’m just happy not to be the token black woman, and woman in general, of the team anymore.” Toni hummed in response, glancing back at Peaches, who was now pulling up some work on her computer. Toni put her attention back on her own work.

* * *

As it turned out, Peaches was probably going to be the one keeping Toni sane at this job. The work didn’t seem all that bad at all, but the workplace culture was a little dull. When Peaches invited her to get lunch at a café next to the office building, she assured Toni that the office would grow on her and that it wasn’t as boring as it first seemed, and Toni hoped that she was right. Regardless, she tried to stay positive. Her first job out of college didn’t have to be her dream job—the fact that she could earn good money only a few months out of school was amazing as it was, and she was so grateful for the position.

Toni stopped at a grocery store nearby her new street on her way back from work in the evening and walked the last stretch from the store to the house rather than bothering with such a short bus ride. She picked up just the necessities. She wasn’t really short on cash right now, but her wallet also wasn’t overflowing, and she wanted to keep her spending to a minimum until she had gotten her first paycheck so that she could make sure all of her necessary expenses were covered.

She let herself in through the front of the house for the first time with her own key and hauled her groceries in before gently shutting and locking the door again.

She didn’t expect to be the only one home, but she also didn’t expect to see a total stranger in the kitchen as she walked in. The woman, who had dark skin and naturally curly hair atop her head, was looking through the cabinets. Toni glanced into the living room, verifying that none of her new roommates were also around, and then looked back at her in confusion. “Uh, hello?”

The woman turned around in surprise. “Oh. Hey. You must be Toni.”

“Um, yeah, that’s me…” Toni lifted an eyebrow, setting her groceries on the kitchen counter and still trying to figure out who this person was.

“I’m Josie,” the girl supplied with a smile, extending a hand to Toni. Toni relaxed a little as she shook Josie’s hand, realizing that she probably should’ve been able to figure that out. “Sorry. I still have a spare key, and I left a few mugs here, so I just stopped by quickly.”

“No worries,” Toni insisted. “Nice to finally meet you. You’re definitely a famous topic of conversation around here.”

Josie laughed a little. “Yeah, everyone keeps texting me about how much they miss me. Honestly, I’ve never been showered with so much love.” Toni laughed a little. “I meant to come over this weekend so I could meet you, but I got busy.”

“Is anyone else here?” Toni wondered, as she started to put her away her groceries into her designated spaces.

“Not that I’m aware of,” Josie answered. “Honestly, I kind of did that on purpose. I’m super busy this week and didn’t want to get dragged into hanging out all night. A girl needs her sleep, but Veronica and Cheryl would definitely not allow for it if I’d come over.”

“Definitely sounds like Veronica, and I’ve only known her for four days,” Toni said with a chuckle.

“From what I’ve heard, sounds like you’re getting along with everyone pretty well already.”

Toni snickered without really thinking about it and asked, “Have you talked to Cheryl? Because I’m pretty sure you did not hear that from her.”

“Cheryl takes some time to warm up to people,” Josie insisted.

“You met her when you guys started college, right?” Toni asked curiously, almost all of her groceries now put away.

“Yeah,” Josie answered, apparently finally finding the mug she was looking for and moving around the kitchen island so that she was out of Toni’s way.

“Did she take time to warm up to you then?”

“Well… no, actually, we hit it off really fast,” Josie answered with a little laugh. “But trust me, she just takes time to open up. Veronica and Betty seem to like you so far, so I’m sure Cheryl will get there.”

Toni gave her a smile. “Thanks.”

“Of course, girl. Well, I should probably be going. Ronnie and Betty usually get back from class in like ten minutes, so I should make myself scarce,” Josie teased with a laugh. “Nice to meet you, Toni.”

“You too,” Toni returned, throwing the grocery bags she’d just emptied into the trash. Josie slipped out the back door and headed for where her car must be parked by the garage.

Sure enough, Veronica and Betty returned just under ten minutes later, and asked how her first day of work was. Toni thought it was pretty sweet of them to ask, and she sat and told them about her day for a few minutes before finally excusing herself up to her room. She’d promised she’d call Sweet Pea and give him updates on her first day of work also, and she knew he was probably waiting on the edge of his seat to hear from her.

* * *

Toni walked quietly downstairs a few hours later, when her stomach had started begging her for dinner. She had her laptop in her hand—planning to divide her attention between filling herself in with some administrative things for her new job and eating food. She set her laptop on the dining table before entering into the kitchen, where she immediately saw Cheryl chopping up some vegetables for what appeared to be a salad.

“Hey,” Toni offered, not even getting a glance from Cheryl. She tried not to roll her eyes as she opened the freezer and finding a frozen dinner that she’d bought from the store. She ignored Cheryl right back as she opened the box and popped the meal into the microwave. Leaning against the counter, she glanced at Cheryl again. She was wearing black jeans that hugged her body incredibly tightly and a blue sweater. Her face was all made up, like usual, but her lipstick was darker than the red Toni had seen her wearing the past few days.

“Can I help you?” Cheryl snapped, apparently having noticing that Toni had accidentally started to stare.

“Sorry,” Toni apologized, as if she had something to apologize for. She looked away from Cheryl for a second, and then surprised herself as she decided to say, “I met Josie earlier today. When I got back from work, she was picking up some stuff she left.”

“Fascinating,” Cheryl muttered, adding her vegetables into her salad and mixing it up.

“She seems nice.” Cheryl didn’t say anything in response, and Toni glanced back at her for a split second before rolling her eyes outright. It wasn’t like Cheryl was paying any attention anyway. The microwave beeped to indicate that Toni’s food was done, and she took the meal out. Grabbing a fork, she mixed it up, wondering if she should give one last attempt at communicating with Cheryl. She didn’t know why she cared so much, but especially after talking to Josie, Toni really wanted to get Cheryl out of her shell. “Any idea where Veronica and Betty are?”

“Nope,” Cheryl answered, popping her lips dramatically as she reached over near Toni to grab a fork out of the drawer next to her.

“It’s weird seeing it so quiet here tonight after the weekend,” Toni tried one last time.

“Yes, well. Veronica likes to party on weekends. On weekdays, sometimes she goes to the library a few blocks away to study. And if Betty isn’t out here being annoyingly and overly sweet, I usually assume she’s holed up in her room working, or she’s with Archie.” Toni was surprised at the response she’d gotten from the redhead, and she took it as a good thing until Cheryl continued with, “But I am not their keeper, so if you care, you should really just text them.” She picked up her salad bowl and fork and walked past Toni to leave the kitchen. Instead of seating herself at the table, though, she started back up the stairs, presumably to her room, and Toni blew out a breath. It really didn’t seem like Cheryl was going to warm up to her anytime soon, and a few days ago, Toni really couldn’t care less. So why did she suddenly care now?

* * *

“It’s not too bad,” Toni said into the phone to Fangs, as she sat squished between a stranger and the wall of the bus. She was about halfway to her bus stop from the office. She’d just finished her third day of work, and things were shaping up to be fine. Peaches had given Toni her phone number earlier that day so that they could get together sometime—girls sticking together or something like that, and honestly, Toni was grateful for it. She was definitely happy to make friends at work. “Pretty standard demography at the office, unfortunately.”

“A bunch of white dudes?”

Toni laughed a little. “Yeah, unfortunately. But there’s one other girl on my team, Peaches. She’s pretty nice, we’re probably going to hang out this weekend.”

“That’s cool. Is your boss a hard ass?”

“No, he’s actually pretty opposite of a hard ass,” Toni admitted. “Everyone calls him _Jughead_.” Fangs laughed at that, and Toni smirked. “I guess that’s the name he prefers to go by, so I’m getting used to it. He’s pretty relaxed, so that’s good. The work is interesting at least. Today was my first day sort of in the full swing of things. I still have a couple training sessions for some of our tools and stuff later this week and early next week. But all in all, not bad.”

“That’s good, I’m happy to hear that. Sweets told me that you were pretty bummed out on Monday, so I was worried that you were going to… I don’t know, regret taking the job, I guess,” Fangs admitted. “And I know it was a big, last minute move, so.”

“Yeah. I’m trying not to let myself look at that way. Regardless of the people, this job is a great opportunity. And I’m actually liking the city.” She glanced around the tightly packed bus. “The bus, not so much, but the city is nice.”

“Well, work a few more months and you’ll probably be able to afford a down payment on a bike, right?”

“God, I hope so,” Toni answered. “I’m still so upset that mine died last year. I should’ve just kept it, so I could’ve paid to get it fixed instead of having to buy another one.”

“It was super fucking old,” Fangs reminded her, “it’s probably for the best that you don’t have it anymore.”

Toni looked out the window as the bus stopped at a light. The sidewalks were full of people, thanks to the sunshine that had finally come in full force this morning. Toni was actually happy to see the clouds gone, and Veronica had also seemed very happy about it this morning when she’d seen her in the kitchen briefly.

“Toni? Did I lose you?”

“Sorry,” Toni apologized quickly. “Sort of zoned out. I shouldn’t, but I’m feeling super tired today.”

“Well, in the last week you moved two hours away to a city where you didn’t even have a place to live yet, moved in with a bunch of random girls, and started a brand new job. Pretty sure that’s reason enough for being tired,” Fangs reminded her.

Toni laughed a little. “Yeah, guess you’re right. On the bright side, I can actually _relax_ tonight. No school, no extra work to do, no jobs to apply to. It feels nice to know that I have actual free time. Although, the fact that I don’t really have any friends here to spend it with does kind of suck.”

“You’re getting there, though,” Fangs insisted. “Oh—shit. Joaquin is calling me. I’ve been ignoring him all weekend.”

“You should pick it up,” Toni told him. “I’ll talk to you later.”

“I guess,” Fangs groaned. “Bye, T.”

Toni sat tiredly on the bus for another ten minutes before it finally stopped at her stop, at which point she squeezed out of her seat and between people to get off. She was sweating uncomfortably as she walked back toward the house. Sunshine came with heat, and Toni already couldn’t wait for the fall to fully set in. She couldn’t wear shorts to work, so there wasn’t really a way to counteract the heat on her way home.

When she let herself into the house a few minutes later, she immediately became aware of a voice in the kitchen—Cheryl’s voice, she realized.

“I know that, trust me, I get it. But it’s not like I was planning for this to happen,” she snapped, and when Toni didn’t hear a response, she realized that the woman was probably on the phone. “Just think about it from my perspective! Well, what am I supposed to do then? Obviously—I’m not stupid.”

Toni pursed her lips, quietly making her way upstairs to her room. She quickly changed into some Nike shorts and a tank top, ready to lay down on her makeshift bed and rest, but then she realized that she really needed water, and she didn’t have any up in her room. Groaning a little, she hoped that Cheryl was off the phone as she quickly started back downstairs.

No such luck, though, as she reached the bottom floor, she heard Cheryl saying, “Can you just think about it? No, I don’t want that either, but I just—I know. I mean, obviously I will _survive_ , but I can’t just—” Toni walked into the kitchen at that moment, bracing herself, and Cheryl immediately saw her and clamped her mouth shut. “I’m going to have to call you back. Just think about it.” She hung up the phone aggressively, setting it on the counter.

“Sorry,” Toni muttered. “Just needed to get some water.”

“How long have you been back?” Cheryl asked harshly.

“Like, a minute. Ran upstairs, changed, came down to get some water. Seriously, I wasn’t listening,” Toni promised. She stepped around Cheryl as she entered the kitchen and went to the fridge, where she’d bought some a water bottles. There was a water filter that Veronica had mentioned they keep in the fridge, but since Toni didn’t have a nightstand or desk yet, she didn’t really have a surface to set a glass, so she was settling with bottles for now.

She glanced over her shoulder as she closed the fridge, looking at Cheryl who was furiously typing something on her phone. She wanted to ask if everything was okay at least, but it was obvious that something was wrong, so the question would probably sound stupid. Especially because there was no way that Cheryl would even entertain her asking about it.

She took a long drink from the water bottle, trying to convince herself that she shouldn’t say anything else to Cheryl, but then when she capped it and started out of the kitchen, she exhaled a little and glanced back at the girl. “Good luck with… whatever’s wrong.” Cheryl glanced up at her, their eyes meeting for a second. Toni gave her a half smile that went unreturned, and then she headed back up to her room. Exhaustion from the day, and the whole past week, really, set in as Toni sat down on her air mattress, and she let herself collapse back into the blankets. A nap sounded like exactly what she needed right now.

* * *

Toni woke up to her phone buzzing incessantly some amount of time later, and she groaned as she searched her air mattress for the device. She found it tangled up in her blankets, and she wiped at her eyes—surely messing up her makeup—as she tried to focus on the screen. The time indicated that she’d been asleep for almost two hours, and she had a bunch of texts waiting for her in a group chat. Furrowing her eyebrows, she opened the texting app.

**Group Message: Veronica Lodge, Betty Cooper, & 1 Unknown**

**Betty – Archie brought some pizzas over if you guys would like some!**

**Veronica – Ooh yes, god I need greasy food right now! You better marry that man, Betty, otherwise I might have to!**

**Unknown – Gross.**

**Veronica – About the pizza or marrying Archie?**

**Unknown – Both. But I am hungry, so save me some. I need to finish this assignment first.**

**Betty – Why is marrying Archie gross? :(**

**Veronica – Cheryl thinks all boys are gross, it’s part of her gay™ personality. You know better than to take it personally, B! :P**

**Betty – Ugh. Archie says that Cheryl is right and that guys are gross.**

**Unknown – Okay, I guess you can marry him then.**

**Veronica – I’m dead.**

**Veronica – Actually though, I’m not because I need to be alive to eat pizza. I’ll be out in a minute!**

The last text had come through only a few seconds ago, and Toni laughed a little at the texts between her new roommates. She had worked out that the unknown number was Cheryl, so she quickly saved her contact before responding in the group.

**Toni – Almost missed this golden conversation because I was napping. *facepalm* I’m definitely coming to get some of that pizza!**

Toni stayed in her shorts and tank top, figuring that there wasn’t a point to put on anymore clothes, and just grabbed her water bottle as she climbed out of her bed and started out of her room. She heard voices from downstairs, and as she made it to the first floor, she saw Archie, Betty, and Veronica having pizza at the table.

“Hey, Toni,” Veronica greeted brightly.

“Hey,” Toni answered, stretching her arms above her head as she moved over to join them at the table. There were some plates set out as well as two boxes of pizza—one of which was open, with a more than half eaten pepperoni pizza sitting inside of it. “Thanks for the pizza, Archie.”

“Yeah, no problem,” Archie answered. “So, how’ve you been settling in, Toni?”

“Pretty good,” Toni said with a nod as she seated herself next to Veronica, across from Betty and Archie. “I feel like, so worn out though, just from moving and starting a new job so fast. Hence the two hour nap I just took.”

“Doesn’t help that it’s so damn hot today,” Veronica complained.

Toni gave her a funny look. “You were practically cheering about the sunny weather this morning.”

“Veronica doesn’t like to be inconvenienced by the weather,” Betty said with a laugh, getting a nod from the dark haired girl.

“Yes, exactly. If it’s hot and I’m sweating and gross, I’m mad. If it’s rainy and I have to use an umbrella, I’m mad. I need it to be like, in the sixties, with the sun out and shining, so it’s like the perfect balance.” Toni smirked a little as she grabbed the last two slices of pepperoni from the open box. Archie closed the now empty box and slipped it underneath the second one.

“I guess that makes sense,” Toni commented.

“Oh, Toni,” Betty said suddenly, “Josie invited all of us to hang out at her new place this weekend, and she said you’re welcome to come if you want.”

“Saturday night—and you can expect to get drunk,” Veronica added with a prominent grin.

Toni nodded. “Okay yeah, I’ll let you know. One of my coworkers suggested we hang out this weekend, I don’t know when, but assuming it’s not at the same time, I wouldn’t mind joining.”

“Awesome,” Betty chimed. “Josie also mentioned that she actually swung by Monday and you two met?” Toni nodded in confirmation—she’d mentioned that to Cheryl, but she hadn’t said anything about to Veronica or Betty.

“Yeah, she seems really nice.”

“She’s basically a saint,” Veronica insisted with a laugh.

They continued to chat and eat, and Toni was almost finished with her pizza when Cheryl was coming down the stairs. She was wearing the same sweater and jeans from earlier, but her feet were bare, and she’d taken off her lipstick, looking a little more relaxed. Toni wanted to offer her a smile, but she wasn’t paying Toni any attention.

“Hey, Cher,” Veronica greeted. “You can take my seat, I’m done eating.” She hopped out of the table and brought her plate toward the sink, and Cheryl walked around to sit in the seat next to Toni, who swallowed thickly, feeling surprisingly nervous all of the sudden.

“Thanks for the food, Archie,” Cheryl said to Betty’s boyfriend, who nodded.

“No problem. How’s your semester going so far, Cheryl?”

“Could be better,” Cheryl answered. “But it’s not too terrible, I guess.”

“What’s your major?” Toni heard herself ask, drawing a narrow eyed gaze from Cheryl, who clearly didn’t appreciate her question.

“Nutritional Science,” Cheryl answered plainly.

“Cool,” Toni said quietly, knowing better than to ask a follow up question.

“Don’t call her out for eating greasy pizza, she hates herself enough for it,” Betty teased, getting an eyeroll from Cheryl. Toni chuckled a little.

“It’s all about balance, right?” she joked, not looking at Cheryl as she finished the last bite of her pizza. She then drank the last of the water in the water bottle and moved to stand up. “Well, thanks again for the pizza. I’m probably going to go shower and then sleep again.”

Betty chuckled. “Have a nice night, Toni.”

Toni said goodnight to Veronica as well in the kitchen before heading upstairs for the night. She already felt a little better having had a nap and some food, but she knew that she should probably try to catch herself up on sleep. Not to mention, she felt strangely bad about hanging out with her roommates when Cheryl was there, like she didn’t want to make Cheryl have a bad time just because she was also there.

It was stupid, she knew, because it wasn’t her fault that Cheryl was such a bitch about Toni being their new roommate. Still, she couldn’t really bring herself to be mad at Cheryl—rather, she was finding herself intrigued and also determined to figure out what was up with her. At this rate, though, it didn’t seem like she would be able to any time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cheryl: *is a bitch to Toni*  
> Toni: "pretty girl is mean? oh no, is pretty girl okay?"  
> Hehe that's how I feel the start of this story basically is. I hope you guys are liking the dynamics so far! I haven't written a roommates style fic since uhhh my very brief Quinntana era in like 2013? I think that means I've written exactly one roommates fic before this one. Craziness. This was so much, though!
> 
> I got a bit of inspiration for the roommates concept of this story (like, the Craigslist ad) from an amazing Brittana fanfic I read in like 2012 or 2013 called "I'll Teach You To Dance". I was one of my favorite Brittana fics, it also inspired the dance class part of The Peace Inside My Soul. It's really long and apparently unfinished, but yeah, I just thought that was a fun fact about this story haha.
> 
> Anywaaay! Thank you guys for reading this update and for being here <3 I hope you guys enjoyed it and can't wait to hear what you guys think is gonna happen in this fic! Or what you think is up with Cheryl! Next update will be Friday, and in the meantime, I hope you guys all have a good rest of your week! x


	3. actually talking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Toni's continuing to settle in, trying to spend more time with her roommates, and trying to figure out the mystery that is Cheryl.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good evening everyone <3  
> I know it's not update day, but after last night, I think we could all use something to cheer us up. So surprise! <3 Also, I just finished my interview and it went really well! I'll hear back about the job early to mid next week! Fingers crossed!
> 
> Anyway, enjoy this chapter y'all <3

“So how does it feel?” Peaches asked at the end of the workday on Friday when Toni shutting down her work computer and rolling her tense shoulders.

“Hm?” Toni asked, glancing at the other girl, who was packing up the work bag she brought in every day.

“To have made it through your first week here?” Peaches clarified with a laugh.

“Oh, yeah. It’s been a pretty good week, but I am ready to have a couple days off for sure. I literally moved into my new place less than a week ago. Been pretty worn out,” Toni admitted. Peaches’ draw dropped.

“Wait, you didn’t already live in the city?” she asked in surprise. “Damn. You should’ve asked for a later start date!”

Toni shrugged, standing and pulling the strap of her purse over her shoulder. “I wanted to get started fast, so I didn’t mind. And I managed to find a house of not crazy people who needed a room filled. Can’t really complain, considering how well it all worked out.”

“That’s some serious luck,” Peaches told her. “I’m so glad I moved here for college. It gave me plenty of time to get used to the city during breaks.” Toni nodded as the two of them started out of the office. “You’ll have to let me show you around town.”

“Sure,” Toni agreed with a nod.

“You busy now?”

Toni stretched her neck a little. Her body was definitely readjusting to sitting at a desk for so long in a day. “No, guess not. I was just going to head home.”

“Well, are you hungry?” Peaches asked, as they made it to the elevator. “There’s this cute café a few blocks south. It’s walking distance if you don’t mind the foot traffic.”

“I could eat,” Toni answered with a chuckle, and they stepped into the elevator as the doors slid open. “Plus, a few blocks south is closer home which means a slightly shorter bus ride.”

“You’ve been taking the busses around, yikes,” Peaches said with a shake of her head, “those are always so crowded.”

“Yeah, but it’s pretty much my only option. We’re not exactly in NYC with subways, and I can’t afford an Uber every day,” Toni explained, chuckling.

“No yeah, totally. I just walk everywhere, honestly,” Peaches said, “but I do have a car, so if something is really out of walking distance, I just deal with the traffic. But busses? I tried for a while in college, and I just couldn’t do it.”

“Hopefully it won’t be too long term for me,” Toni told her coworker. The elevator dinged as they reached the main floor and they both walked out. “Once I have a few paychecks under my belt, I’m hoping to buy a motorcycle.”

Peaches looked at Toni, clearly impressed. “Girl, you have a license for that?”

“Yeah,” Toni replied, laughing at the shock on Peaches’ face. “Come on, it can’t be that surprising.”

“Guess not. You’re definitely going to draw some eyes if you pull up to work in a motorcycle, that’s for sure,” Peaches told her, before thoughtfully adding, “which is definitely not a bad thing, and honestly, you really should do it.”

They walked to the café Peaches had mentioned and had a light dinner. Toni found out that Peaches was from the south before she moved up north to Washington state for school, and they talked about their similar experiences with majoring in computer science as non-white women, and how they remembered being some of the only people who looked like them in classes of forty people. It was sad, but true.

When they finished dinner, Toni said goodbye to her new work friend and caught a bus back to the house. It still didn’t feel much like she was going _home_ , but she was settling in pretty well and she hoped it would feel more like home pretty soon.

All of her roommates were home when she got there, and Veronica asked if she needed dinner, saying that they were going to get food. Toni declined, having just ate, and headed upstairs for a shower.

As she was changing into pajamas after her shower, she saw a text from Veronica saying that she and Betty were likely going to be staying out pretty late, so if they didn’t come home at a reasonable time, that was why. Toni shot a text back to Veronica acknowledging it, appreciating the information. It was a Friday night, though, and the girls were in college, so she wasn’t surprised.

Cheryl didn’t go with them, which was made extra clear after Toni had been lounging on her bed for a while, and she suddenly heard Cheryl in her room through the walls.

“I’m not asking for anything other than what is _mine_ ,” she exclaimed.

It sounded like she was in the middle of another phone conversation, so she must have just raised her voice, because Toni hadn’t been able to hear her beforehand.

“I can’t believe you’re taking their side! Oh no, you can’t do that, okay? I have never done—no, it’s not about that! Okay, it's mine, and they can't just keep it there! Don’t you think that I _would_ if I _could_?”

Toni sighed uncomfortably, finally getting up from her bed and leaving her bedroom. She closed the door somewhat firmly, but didn’t slam it, in the hopes that Cheryl would hear it and realize how loud she was being. In the meantime, Toni made her way downstairs and settled into the couch, turning on the TV and flipping to a random channel.

About fifteen minutes later, she heard feet padding on the stairs, and she glanced to her right as she saw Cheryl coming down the front hallway. Surprisingly, the redhead’s dark eyes made immediately eye contact with hers. “Sorry,” Cheryl apologized, her voice eerily quiet and void of any edge, “if you came down here because of me. I wasn’t trying to shout.”

“No worries,” Toni assured her, watching for a second as Cheryl made her way into the kitchen. Toni turned the volume of the TV down a little now that she knew Cheryl wasn’t yelling on the phone anymore. “Everything okay?”

“Not really,” Cheryl deadpanned. “Did Veronica and Betty go out?”

“Yeah,” Toni answered, looking curiously back at Cheryl. “They didn’t text you?”

“Oh. I didn’t check.”

Toni watched the girl for another moment as she started to pull some food items out of the fridge, and then she turned her attention back to the TV, hoping that she could keep it there. Something about Cheryl being in the room was just so… distracting.

“What are you watching?” Cheryl asked with distaste.

“I think it’s a show sort of like Naked and Afraid,” Toni answered. “I don’t know, I just found something that didn’t look ridiculously boring. They’re like… running around the wilderness or something. Less naked than Naked and Afraid, though.”

She heard Cheryl snicker. “That’s probably for the best.”

“So, do Betty and Veronica usually go out on Friday nights?” Toni wondered curiously, glancing back at Cheryl. Her attention was definitely straying from the TV.

“Usually. Sometimes I’d join them,” Cheryl answered. She seemed to be making another salad.

“You eat so much salad,” Toni commented, before immediately receiving a glare from those dark, intense eyes. “What? I’m impressed. Salad is so not delicious.”

“How would you know? Every time I’ve seen you eat in the last week, you’ve been eating frozen meals or pizza,” Cheryl scorned.

“Well, that doesn’t mean I’ve never eaten a salad before,” Toni joked.

“My body is a temple,” Cheryl answered plainly. It looked like she was maybe cutting up some grilled chicken or something to add to the salad. Toni couldn’t help but observe the woman’s outfit today. She wore high waisted jean shorts and a fitted red t-shirt. It had been hot again today, which explained the outfit. The shorts, though, showed off Cheryl’s legs, which Toni couldn’t see from this angle. It was probably for the best, she realized, as she felt her mouth go a little dry observing the girl’s curves. Her body was definitely a well taken care of temple.

“Yeah, well,” Toni finally said, “I don’t like to cook, and I’ve never had a huge food budget, so I make do with what I can.”

“Mm.”

Toni forced her attention back on the show. The truth was, now that Cheryl was downstairs, she really should’ve just gone back up to her room. She didn’t care about this show, and she’d been plenty comfortable in her makeshift bed. But Cheryl was actually _talking_ to her, which was apparently reason enough for her to hang around downstairs as if she had nothing better to do.

But they didn’t talk much after that. Cheryl sat in one of the living room chairs while she ate her salad, scrolling through her phone and occasionally glancing up at the show that Toni was trying really hard for focus on. And when Cheryl was almost done eating, the show was wrapping up, so Toni decided to use it as an excuse to leave now, rather than making it obvious that she was only hanging around downstairs to be around the redhead.

“Well, I should probably go upstairs. I’m supposed to call one of my friends and catch up,” she told Cheryl, giving her a quick glance. “Have a good night.”

“Thanks,” Cheryl answered, her gaze down at her phone rather than on Toni. The brunette blew out a breath and turned the TV off before heading back upstairs.

* * *

If Toni thought that the half hour or so that Cheryl was civil toward her was indicative of Cheryl deciding that they could be friends, she was definitely proven wrong the next day, when Cheryl was back to giving her glares anytime they so much as crossed paths. It was unfortunate, too, because they had plans to go over to Josie’s place across the city that evening, and they were all carpooling. Betty had offered to drive, apparently not interested in drinking tonight, and Toni was pretty sure that meant Veronica was going to call shotgun, and Toni was going to be stuck in the back of the car with Cheryl.

She spent the day catching up on some Netflix shows that she hadn’t had time to watch during her move, and then as the evening crept on up her, Toni got ready to go over to Josie’s. It felt a little weird that she was accompanying her new roommates to one of their closest friends’ apartment, but she figured she shouldn’t get hung up on it. She wanted to have friends in the city, and why shouldn’t those friends be the people she lived with?

She didn’t know what everyone was wearing to Josie’s, but Toni was tired of slacks and pants from the week, so she pulled on some fishnets and black shorts over them. A tight, magenta crop top covered her bralette, the straps of which showed intentionally over her shoulders. She finished the look with some heeled boots and her favorite leather jacket, feeling a bit more comfortable in her choice of clothes than she had in the whole past week. Maybe she’d dressed a little more conservatively on purpose when she’d first met Veronica, hoping to make a good impression, but now that she knew that her style choice was not likely to bother any of the girls, she was all about dressing in a way that made her feel good.

She walked downstairs, all dressed and ready to go, about five minutes before Betty had said they would leave and found that all of the rest of the women were already down there. Betty had her hair down—which Toni had only seen a few times this week—and was wearing tighter jeans than normal and a loose, white blouse. Veronica was dressed in one of the many black dresses that she seemed to own, finished with strappy heels and pearls. Toni had begun to learn that Veronica was basically always overdressed.

When Toni glanced at Cheryl’s outfit, she actually felt her breath catch in her throat for a brief moment. She was wearing a high waisted red and black plaid skirt that didn’t fall very low and long, black heeled boots. A tight, black, mesh shirt was tucked into the skirt, hiding her body not very much at all. Her black bra was visible underneath it. She wore her bright red lipstick as well.

“Hey,” Toni finally said, drawing all the women’s attention. They’d apparently been waiting on her. “Sorry, didn’t mean to make you guys wait.”

“No worries,” Betty insisted. “I just got out here, too.”

“You look cute, Toni,” Veronica said with a grin. “I’ve only seen you wear like, business professional stuff.”

Toni chuckled. “Yeah, I guess you could say I’m already tired of that look.” She glanced at Cheryl, realizing that the girl’s gaze was burning into her. Toni felt her palms get a little sweaty as Betty grabbed her keys off the kitchen counter and took a step toward the back door.

“Shall we go?” she asked.

As they stepped out onto the back porch and started for the driveway, Veronica chimed, “Shotgun!” and Toni suppressed a groan, having predicted this exact moment.

Toni got in behind the passenger seat of Betty’s station wagon as Cheryl slipped in behind the driver’s seat. It wasn’t a super tight fit, but it wasn’t spacious either by any means. Veronica took the liberty of turning on the radio as Betty pulled out of the driveway and started them on the drive across the city.

Betty and Veronica chatted amicably during the half hour drive, occasionally pulling Toni or Cheryl into the conversation, but the backseat passengers mostly stayed quiet during it. Toni felt a little out of place, and found herself texting Sweet Pea, letting him know of her predicament. He made fun of her, noting how just over a week ago, she had insisted that living with all girls was going to be so easy, and here she was complaining about how she couldn’t get her fourth roommate to like her.

Cheryl, similarly, had her eyes glued to her phone for most of the ride, looking pretty bored. However, as soon as they parked in the parking garage underneath Josie’s apartment building, Cheryl seemed to embody a whole new vibe, getting out of the car confidently and looking far happier than she had any time Toni had seen her thus far.

And when they navigated up the building to Josie’s unit, and Josie swung open the door to greet them, Cheryl actually seemed to light up. She hugged Josie and scolded her for not coming over earlier in the week, and then invited herself to poking through Josie’s cabinets for a drink. Meanwhile, Josie greeted Veronica, Betty, and Toni. “Nice to see you again, Toni. I was happy to hear you were free tonight.”

“Yeah, not much to occupy my time here yet,” Toni admitted with a laugh, “so I appreciate the invite.”

“Of course,” Josie returned with a grin. “Help yourselves to any of the wine I have—I swear like four different people brought me a bottle at the studio in congratulations. Oh, Betty, when is Archie going to be here?”

“Archie is coming?” Cheryl inquired, as she walked out of Josie’s kitchen with a full glass of white wine.

“I actually went a little overboard with inviting people over tonight,” Josie admitted. “I guess something about living alone. I miss having more interactions with people.”

“So who all is coming?” Veronica wondered, as Toni glanced around the apartment a little more. It was a modern style, with big windows, but it wasn’t very big. A nice kitchen was nestled in one corner, and a joined living and dining space took up the rest of the space. The furniture was sparse, but there wasn’t room for much more than what there was—a big couch, a small circular table with four chairs, and a TV resting on a TV stand. There were two doors off of the main space, one by the kitchen and one in the living area.

“Sorry you’re not really going to know anyone else, Toni,” Josie apologized suddenly, puling Toni out of her head.

“Oh, no worries,” Toni insisted. “Like I said, I was happy for the invite, I don’t mind at all.”

Josie spent the next ten minutes or so telling her closest friends, and Toni, about the recording studio and all of the people she’d met so far. She talked about the girls she’d met who were going to be her backup singers, and she sounded super excited. Even though Toni didn’t really know her, it was easy to be excited for her thanks to her bright personality.

Toni found herself glancing at Cheryl too many times during the conversation, though, noticing how proud she looked of her best friend. It was easy to tell how close the two of them were, especially from Cheryl’s side. It made Toni feel a little guilty about taking Josie’s old room, which was stupid, because it wasn’t like it was Toni’s fault that Josie had moved. Just, Toni felt like she could maybe understand why Cheryl was so upset about having a random new roommate. Although it was clear that she was friends with Veronica and Betty, she wasn’t nearly as close to them as she was to Josie, and that was evident.

About fifteen minutes after they’d arrived, where was another knock on the door. Josie answered it and revealed Archie and two other guys that Toni hadn’t met. They were briefly introduced to her as Reggie and Munroe, and she greeted them politely. They oozed the college frat boy vibe, which wasn’t exactly Toni’s favorite vibe, but she decided to give them the benefit of the doubt. Archie seemed nice, after all, and he was friends with them.

They weren’t the last people to arrive at Josie’s. Quite a few more people showed up, and pretty soon, it felt like a house party had officially been kicked off. Toni drank through two glasses of wine with minimal interaction, other than a brief conversation with a guy named Chuck whose eyes wandered too much, and an introduction with a girl whose name she didn’t remember afterward.

She didn’t mind keeping to herself and observing, but she did worry that she might look weird just sitting at the small dining table and drinking and watching. After a while, she started paying attention to her phone and texted her best friend.

**Messaging: Sweet Pea**

**Toni – This friendly hangout somehow turned into a party, and I know only 5 people here, and I’ve only known 3 of them for longer than 7 days. I know it should be just like any other college party, but it feels so different for some reason and I’m just sitting here alone on my phone. I’m on my third glass of wine.**

**Sweet Pea – If you’re drinking wine, that’s probably an indication that it’s not like any other college party lmao.**

**Sweet Pea – But hey, free drinks? Get drunk, live it up, bro.**

Toni rolled her eyes a little at her friend’s suggestion. She didn’t want to get drunk at Josie’s apartment, especially not if her new roommates would have to be the ones dealing with her on the drive home.

**Toni – Maybe the issue is that I’m not my own ride home. So I can’t just leave.**

**Sweet Pea – Get an Uber.**

**Toni – Dude, they’re so expensive here, because it takes a million years to get anywhere.**

**Sweet Pea – Bus?**

**Toni – I don’t know how late they run. Anyway, I think it would be rude if I literally took a bus home just to leave early. I’d rather just sit here texting all night.**

**Sweet Pea – Still not trying to say I told you so, but… you were all about how you didn’t care what your new roommates were like as long as they were clean, and now you’re all worried about making good impressions.**

**Toni – Well of course I want to make a good impression on the people I’m living with.**

**Sweet Pea – Nuh-uh, come on, spill. One of them is hot, right?**

**Toni – You’re disgusting.**

**Sweet Pea – No, I’m right, and you just don’t want to admit it.**

“I’m really sorry about this,” a voice said suddenly, surprising Toni and causing her to quickly lock her phone as she looked up. It was just Betty. “If we’d known it was going to be a whole party, we would’ve warned you.”

“Oh no, it’s fine, seriously,” Toni insisted, as Betty took a seat next to her. “Everyone seems nice.”

Betty laughed like Toni had said something funny, and Toni just raised an eyebrow at her. “Josie has a lot of friends. This is just a small subset of them. Josie, she’s _so_ sweet. I mean, you can definitely get on her bad side, but she makes friends so easily. I actually always thought it was pretty crazy how she did that. I don’t know how she can remember so many things about so many different people.”

Toni chuckled at that, taking another sip of her wine. “Yeah, I get it. My friend group back home was pretty small, too, so.”

“Yeah?” Betty asked. “What’re they like?”

“Well, they’re both dudes actually, which makes it pretty crazy suddenly living with all girls,” Toni admitted with a chuckle. “My two best friends, Sweet Pea and Fangs. They were my roommates before, too, for the past few years. I mean, I have other friends back there, too, but none that I really felt super close with for a long time, I guess.”

Betty nodded. “I get that. Well, don’t worry, we probably won’t stay super late. Well—I won’t, anyway. Archie and I were planning to go to his place tonight, so I was planning to drop everyone else off back home before it gets too late. And if Ronnie and Cher end up wanting to party later, they’ll have to get their own rides back, or crash here.”

Toni followed Betty’s line of sight, seeing Cheryl and Veronica both taking long sips of some sort of drink that was definitely harder than wine. Josie was with them, and they were all laughing and talking and drinking, surrounded by others of Josie’s friends. Veronica looked to be flirting with one of the guys—Munroe, Toni recalled. Cheryl, on the other hand, kept rolling her eyes at the same guy who had been giving Toni too much of his attention earlier, Chuck. Toni frowned a little. “Don’t know why, but I didn’t really picture Cheryl as much of a partyer.”

“Yeah, she relaxes a lot around people once she gets close to them, but depending on the person, that can take a while,” Betty told Toni. “I mean, I’ve known her for like, almost our whole lives, but she’s never gotten very close with me. She hit it off a lot more with Veronica and Josie.”

“Mm,” Toni hummed, finishing her glass of wine. “Yeah, I used to do a lot of partying freshman year of college. But I was on a scholarship, and my grades started to slip second semester because of it, so I had to quit going out and drinking so much.”

Betty frowned. “Yeah, that’s definitely a good reason not to. I just never liked getting drunk.” Betty took a sip of her water and then looked back at Toni. “So… do you have a boyfriend—or girlfriend, no judgment—back home?”

“Nope,” Toni answered with a chuckle. “Haven’t dated anyone in about a year actually. I was really focused on finishing my degree and getting a job.”

“Smart again,” Betty said with a laugh. “Archie and I have been dating since high school.”

“Cute,” Toni commented, and Betty blushed, going on about how she met Archie and all about how they started dating each other. Toni tried to keep listening, but her gaze kept drifting back over to where Veronica and Cheryl were. Well, specifically, to where Cheryl was. She kept getting distracted by that short skirt and mesh top. The wine wasn’t helping.

It was a couple hours after they had arrived that Betty rounded the girls up, and they all said goodbye to Josie and everyone else at the party before heading back down to the parking garage. Archie was headed out as well, apparently going to go straight back to his place to wait for Betty.

Cheryl didn’t seem to deflate much as they left Josie’s. Toni had expected her to go right back to her callous attitude, but maybe it was the alcohol that kept her chatting with Veronica during the car ride.

When they returned to the house, Betty made sure all of them—mostly Veronica, who was clearly the drunkest—were all good inside, before wishing them a good night and heading to Archie’s. Veronica murmured something about a nap and made her way to her bedroom, leaving Toni and Cheryl in the living room. Cheryl was on the couch, where she’d collapsed dramatically upon entering the house, and Toni was just standing there, not sure what to do with herself.

She glanced at Cheryl, whose eyes had fallen closed. “Tired?” she asked, and those dark eyes fluttered open.

“No,” Cheryl answered. “A little drunk, though.”

“Yeah. Seems like you had fun tonight,” Toni said, a little upswing in her voice as she made the comment, hoping that Cheryl would entertain the conversation.

“Mm.” Toni would’ve rolled her eyes at the non-answer that cut off the conversation, but, oddly, Cheryl’s eyes were still on her. “Did you?”

“Yeah,” Toni said, although she hadn’t really had the greatest time. It hadn’t been _not_ fun, though, she supposed. “Josie’s friends seem nice.”

Cheryl laughed, similarly to how Betty had laughed when Toni had made the same comment earlier. “Josie has way too many friends.”

“Yeah, Betty said something along those same lines,” Toni said with a chuckle, honestly just in awe that Cheryl had laughed during conversation with just her. “There was one guy who made me mildly uncomfortable. Um… Chuck, I think?”

“Chuck Clayton,” Cheryl stated, nodding as she let her eyes fall back closed. “He would fuck anything with legs.” Toni blinked in surprise at the statement, a laugh escaping her lips without her permission at how surprising it was. Cheryl’s eyes opened at the sound. “What, did you not get that impression?”

“Oh no, I definitely did.”

“He especially likes to hit on girls who would never sleep with him,” Cheryl muttered, rolling her eyes.

“Does that mean he likes to hit on you?” Toni asked, sitting on the arm of the couch and slightly facing Cheryl.

“Unfortunately.”

“Yeah, men suck,” Toni stated decidedly, noticing the small smile peeking at the corners of Cheryl’s lips.

“Veronica and Betty always act like _I_ am the one missing out.”

Toni laughed at that, her heart feeling a little warm as she joked around with Cheryl. She knew it was probably because Cheryl was drunk that the redhead was bothering with the conversation, but it was nice. “Straight women never know what they’re missing out on.”

Cheryl smirked. “Mm.” Her eyes fell closed once again.

Toni stared at the girl for a moment, feeling her heart rate rise a little, and she swallowed thickly. Why was this happening to her? Her new roommate, who was a lesbian, was absolutely gorgeous, and funny, but was only even talking to her because she was drunk. It felt like some kind of dumb prank that Toni felt like she was developing some sort of little crush on the girl. What kind of person started crushing on someone they’d known for less than a week and who had been mostly a bitch to them the whole time?

Sighing, Toni stood up from where she’d been sitting. She didn’t notice that Cheryl’s eyes opened at the movement until a second later, after she’d stretched her arms up high over her head. Cheryl seemed to be staring at her.

“You should get some sleep,” Toni told the girl.

“Yeah,” Cheryl agreed, blinking and looking away from Toni before slowly getting up from the couch.

“Are you going to need help up the stairs?” Toni asked.

“No,” Cheryl answered shortly, starting for the stairs herself. Toni trailed behind her, running a hand through her brunette hair. They both climbed the stairs, Toni trying to keep her gaze anywhere but the backside of the woman ahead of her, and then Cheryl made a beeline for the bathroom. “Gonna shower.”

Toni rolled her eyes as Cheryl entered the room and locked it behind her, realizing that she was going to have to wait for her to finish, which this week had taught her could be anywhere from fifteen minutes to an hour. She wasn’t sure if Cheryl being drunk would make it shorter or longer.

Resolving herself to waiting up for a while, Toni headed into her room and collapsed onto her air mattress. She looked around at the bare space, littered with her bags and things that had no place yet. She really needed to go furniture shopping. Her first paycheck wouldn’t be coming through until the following week, but she probably had enough in savings to get what she needed without going into her rent or food money.

She told herself that she would get to it this week, and in the meantime, she tried not to fall asleep as she waited for Cheryl to get out of the shower.

Thankfully, the redhead only took about twenty minutes to shower and get ready for bed. When she heard the woman’s bedroom door close firmly was when Toni left her room and took the bathroom for herself, finding it all fogged up from Cheryl’s shower.

Finally, though, about half an hour later, she was curled up in bed, falling asleep easily with the wine in her system.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys liked this one! I think the next chapter is one of my favorites from the beginning of this story hehe. I liked this one a lot too! I actually really loved writing this whole story so I'll probably say that a lot about all of this haha!
> 
> Thank you all so much for the comments and feedback y'all have given here and on Twitter! It means so much to me that you guys are enjoying enough to leave feedback <3 Thanks for spending some of your day here, and I hope you all are doing well despite what happened last night!
> 
> I'll see you all on Saturday with the next chapter! In the meantime, feel free to hit me up on Twitter @ToriWrtsStories ! <3


	4. ikea virginity

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Peaches suggests that Toni check out Ikea (for the first time!) to get some furniture for her room, and Toni has a surprisingly good trip to the furniture warehouse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good morning, lovelies!!  
> I hope you're all okay with an early Saturday update ;D I'm going to be road tripping all day and probably hanging out (virtually) with from friends when I get home, so I figured I'd just update now to make sure I don't forget!  
> Actually 2 of you guessed right for this chapter after I posted that little "hint" on Twitter! One of you really hit the nail on the head for what happens this chapter haha!  
> Thank you all so much for all of your predictions and comments, they really make me smile and I am so appreciative of all of them <3
> 
> Enjoy!xx

“So, what are the views on like, unnatural hair colors in this office?” Toni asked Peaches on their lunch break on Tuesday. Peaches herself had blue in her hair, but there weren’t many other examples of colorful hair in the office, and Toni had also not missed the fact that only the women in the office seemed to dress nicely every day, the guys mostly wearing jeans and t-shirts. Toni supposed that no one had specifically asked her to dress a certain way, but she was pretty sure that if she didn’t, people might not take her seriously.

“There’s no rules or anything if that’s what you’re wondering,” Peaches told her. They were sitting in the office building’s little café on the first floor of the building. They’d each bought a coffee, but Toni had brought her own lunch from home, while Peaches had put in a Postmates order shortly before their break started. “I mean, I like to stand out, but I’m not oblivious to the way it might make some of the guys view me. But I get my shit done and they know to take me serious.”

Toni nodded. “I used to dye mine pink and purple a lot. I dyed it all back to brown when I got the job, just to be safe, but I miss the colors.”

“Honestly, I would say just do you. But I get it if you want to settle in a little more, first. Good thing is that I think you fit really well into the team. I’m sure it’d be fine either way,” Peaches assured her. “Pull up on a motorcycle with pink hair one day, and I’m sure all the guys here will either be terrified of you, or in love with you.”

Toni snickered. “The second one is definitely not my goal.” Peaches laughed, shaking her head as she took a bite of her food. “Terrified, though? I could make that work.”

“So how are you settling into your new place?” Peaches wondered.

“Pretty well. The girls I’m living with are all seniors in college, and they’re all pretty nice and welcoming, which is cool. Went to a lowkey college party on Saturday night, which was weird, considering I only knew a handful of them,” Toni told her friend. “But yeah, it’s nice. Except I’m still missing a bunch of furniture for my room.” She rolled her eyes.

“Oh, there’s an Ikea just south of the city—that’s pretty close to where you live, right?” Toni nodded.

“I’ve actually never been to Ikea,” Toni admitted.

“Ikea is simultaneously super impressive, and also super intimidating. I can send you the address of the one close to you if you want. They have lots of affordable stuff and I’m sure that even if you haven’t been there, you know that they’re known for easy building instructions.”

“Yeah, honestly that sounds great. Affordable and easy is right up my alley.”

“If you need a shopping buddy, you can definitely hit me up, too,” Peaches told her with a smile.

Toni returned it, not sure if she would follow up with that, but maybe. Peaches did have a car, and Toni would need someone with a car to help her, so she might find that she needed her. Still, she didn’t say one way or the other yet, because she was still unsure of when she would be going shopping.

* * *

On the bus ride home Tuesday evening, Toni tried to remember what her roommates’ schedules were like on Tuesdays. She recalled that last Monday and Wednesday, Betty and Veronica hadn’t gotten home until later than her, but for Tuesdays, she couldn’t recall. Same went for Cheryl, Toni had no idea of her schedule other than the fact that she’d been home earlier than Toni on Wednesday. She really wanted to familiarize herself with when the other women would be home, mostly because of Cheryl.

After Saturday night, Toni had hoped that maybe, just maybe, Cheryl was finally willing to try and be her friend, but once again, she was disproved on Sunday. Cheryl had barely spared her a glance and had definitely not mentioned the fact that they’d actually had a nice conversation after Josie’s party on Saturday. And the previous day, Monday, had been the same as always as well. It was bugging Toni way more than it should. By this point, she should’ve just given up, and she didn’t know why she couldn’t let it go.

Toni ran her hand through her hair, pulling some of it away from her back, where it was sticking uncomfortably in the heat of the bus. It actually wasn’t too hot outside, but apparently this particular bus had very poor air conditioning today, so the ride was excruciating.

Finally, she was able to squeeze out of it and finish her trip home with the short walk to the house. As she let herself in, she listened for any voices in the house, but heard nothing. Blowing out a breath and assuming she was alone, she quickly went to the kitchen and grabbed one of her cold water bottles out of the fridge. She then headed upstairs, chugging down a few gulps of water as she made her way into her room. As she set her bag and water down and started to pull off the blazer she’d worn today, she suddenly became aware of a soft sobbing sound. It brought an instant frown to her face.

Now just wearing her slacks and a white tank top, Toni pulled her long hair over her shoulder as she slowly walked back out of her room, glancing toward Cheryl’s door. Her door was propped open, but the light was off. The bathroom door was open as well, though, and the light was on.

Toni bit down on her lower lip, slowly approaching the bathroom and peeking in. Sure enough, Cheryl was standing over the sink, her hands pressed to the counter, as she cried softly. Toni felt her heart aching suddenly.

“Cheryl?” she asked softly.

Cheryl looked up in surprise, meeting Toni’s gaze in the mirror for a second before she quickly sniffed and wiped at her face. “Shit, Toni…”

“Sorry,” Toni apologized, “I just got back, and I heard you…”

“No, I’m sorry,” Cheryl whispered, wiping underneath her eyes, “I’ll get out of your way.”

“Wait, Cheryl,” Toni argued, drawing the girl’s gaze again, “are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?”

Cheryl looked away from Toni for a second, becoming strangely interested in the countertop. “I’m fine,” she said, unbelievably, “don’t worry about it.” She straightened up and started to leave the bathroom. As she turned to go toward her room, Toni’s phone buzzed suddenly, and she pulled it out of the pocket in her slacks to see that it was a text from Peaches with the address of the Ikea she’d mentioned earlier.

“Hey,” Toni called out suddenly, getting an idea. Cheryl froze, looking over her shoulder suspiciously, her eyes still red. “You want a distraction?”

Cheryl lifted an eyebrow, sniffing again. “What kind of distraction?”

“I was thinking about finally going to get some furniture for my room,” Toni said. “Getting tired of not having any surfaces to set things down.”

Cheryl glanced toward Toni’s door for a second, her eyebrows furrowing a little. “You still don’t have any furniture?” Toni shook her head, laughing a little.

“My friend told me that there’s an Ikea south of here. But I don’t really want to wander a furniture warehouse by myself, plus… I don’t have a car.” Toni gave Cheryl her best smile. “I was thinking about just inviting my friend to come with me, but if you wanted the company, we could go instead.”

Cheryl still looked hesitant, but after sniffling one more time and wiping a stray tear from her face, she said, “Give me ten minutes.”

Toni smiled and nodded, turning around to head back into her room to get ready to go as well. She changed out of her work clothes and opted for shorts and a t-shirt instead, tying a purple flannel around her waist as well. Then she tied the top half of her hair into two space buns, letting the bottom half flow freely down in a less thick wave. After quickly using the restroom, she headed downstairs to wait for Cheryl.

When the redhead came down, any remnants of her tears were gone. Her eyes weren’t even red anymore, and it looked like she’d touched up her makeup. “So,” she said, heading toward the backdoor. “Where are we going?”

Toni followed her roommate out of the house through the back door, and toward the car that Toni hadn’t ridden in yet. It was a red BMW SUV that Toni was pretty sure was worth about ten times the amount of everything Toni owned. The color of the car was no surprise to Toni, who had quickly realized that Cheryl owned a _lot_ of red things. Toni was definitely curious about the price of the car, though, mostly because she recalled Veronica saying that Cheryl hadn’t been willing to help over the costs of the extra fourth of rent for a month after Josie moved out, but she clearly owned a very expensive car.

Of course, Toni wasn’t about to ask about that. She knew that people’s financial situations were personal. She knew it very well actually, considering how little she was ever really comfortable talking about her own financial situation over the years.

Toni told Cheryl where the Ikea was as they got into Cheryl’s car, and the girl responded that she’d been to that one before and didn’t need directions. Toni looked around the car as she slipped inside. The seats were leather, and the inside featured a sleek and modern design. “Damn, this is a nice car,” Toni said as she got comfortable in the passenger seat.

“Thanks,” Cheryl said simply. Toni glanced at her, noticing the stoicism on her face, and decided not to say anything else about the car.

The drive to Ikea was silent because Toni couldn’t work up the nerve to say anything to Cheryl. It wasn’t until they were pulling into the huge Ikea parking lot that Toni finally blew out a breath and said, “Okay, I have like a loose shopping list.”

“Loose?” Cheryl inquired, lifting an eyebrow. “What does that mean?”

“I know what I need, but price is going to play a factor in what I actually get. Also… I didn’t measure any of the walls in my room,” Toni admitted, grimacing a little as she realized that fact. Cheryl rolled her eyes, grabbing her phone and giving it her attention. “Uh, what are you—”

“I have the house floorplan way back in my email,” Cheryl stated flatly, “so I have the dimensions of your room.”

“Oh,” Toni said in surprise. Suddenly, Toni got a text, and she looked down at her phone to see that it was a screenshot of the floorplan, zoomed up on her room, sent from Cheryl. “Thanks.”

“Come on,” Cheryl said, turning off her car and climbing out, Toni following suit. The redhead was already headed inside, and Toni rolled her eyes as she hurried to catch up. Cheryl locked the car as Toni fell in line next to her. “So what all do you need?”

“I need a desk, at least one nightstand, probably at least one shelf or something for storage, and a bedframe… well, I guess I also need a mattress—does Ikea have mattresses?” Toni asked, realizing that it was a lot of stuff.

Cheryl realized as well, snickering and asking sarcastically, “Is that all?”

“I don’t have to get it all today. I don’t know how much room your car has.”

“The back seats fold down,” Cheryl told her, “we could probably fit everything.”

“Even a mattress?”

“Well… maybe not a mattress,” Cheryl admitted. “You can probably order it for delivery.”

“I guess I can put up with an air mattress for a little longer,” Toni joked, giving Cheryl a sideways glance. The woman didn’t crack a smile, and Toni decided that she _would_ be getting a smile out of her at some point today. They walked into Ikea, and Toni was in awe of how massive the place was as Cheryl started toward a set of escalators off to the right. “This place is huge.”

“You’ve never been to an Ikea?” Cheryl asked, glancing at her curiously.

“No.”

“I swear, this is one of Veronica’s favorite places,” Cheryl said. “A guy could probably take her on a date here and she would think it was literally the best date ever.” Toni smirked as they rode one of the escalators up to what Toni could only describe as the most insane furniture store that she’d ever seen. “It’s kind of confusing at first, but you get used to it. You just follow the arrows and decide what you want, and then when you get to the warehouse, you load up a cart with all the stuff you want and checkout.”

“Wow, okay,” Toni said with a nod. “I guess we just go for it, then.”

They started the walk through the Ikea floor, and Toni felt honestly overwhelmed by the sheer number of options, as well as the large number of people who had also apparently decided that a Tuesday evening was the best time to go furniture shopping.

Still, it wasn’t too difficult for Toni to find the cheapest of whatever it was she needed in a given section and take a picture of the label so she could find it in the warehouse later. Some of the little room setups were actually kind of cool, and Toni could understand why people were obsessed with the store.

When they were in the area with a bunch of faux bedrooms, Toni looked for a cheap and nice bedframe, and decided to test out some of the mattresses, sitting down on one of them and feeling it under her palms.

“I thought you were just going to order a mattress for delivery,” Cheryl stated.

“I still gotta test it, though, right?” Toni asked, lifting an eyebrow. “What do you think?”

Cheryl hesitantly sat down on the bed next to Toni and frowned. “It’s way too firm.”

“I actually like a firmer mattress,” Toni admitted, “or… maybe that’s just what I’m used to.”

Cheryl hummed thoughtfully. “I guess anything beats an air mattress.” Toni smiled, getting up from the bed and drawing Cheryl’s gaze.

“Come on, we have to try the next one.”

“Toni, there’s at least eight full sized mattresses here,” Cheryl said, begrudgingly getting up.

“Eight isn’t that many to test,” Toni insisted, going to the next closest bed. She saw the label and knew that she couldn’t afford this mattress, but she sat down on it anyway, enjoying how Cheryl groaned in frustration even as she gave in and sat down on the mattress as well. “You like this one better?”

“It’s softer,” Cheryl offered. “It’s also six hundred dollars. Didn’t you say you had a budget?”

Toni laughed, leaning back on her palms and looking at the redhead. “Yeah. I guess I shouldn’t blow it all on a soft mattress, huh?” She glanced around the floor, noting that the cheapest mattress seemed to be the one she’d sat on first. “Well, lucky for you, I’ll be fine with the cheapest one.”

“Why is that lucky for me?” Cheryl asked.

“Because I won’t make you sit on the other six with me,” Toni teased, standing up. “I should try and find a bedframe, though.”

As Toni looked around at the Ikea bedframes, she did a quick web search and found that she could get a box support bedframe, without a headboard or footboard, for way cheaper on Amazon, and decided that since she couldn’t get a mattress today anyway, she didn’t need to bother getting a frame today.

She had picked out a desk, desk chair, two nightstands, and a shelf by the time they reached the end of the display floor. She expected to come to the warehouse at this point, like Cheryl had mentioned, but she found the two of them entering into a cafeteria-like area. “Oh shit, I totally forgot that Ikea had food, even though I feel like I’ve heard more about Ikea food than I have the rest of Ikea.” Cheryl smirked a little at that, and it was the closest to a smile that Toni had gotten out of her so far today. “You hungry?” Cheryl glanced over at the restaurant area. “I’ll buy,” Toni offered. “It’s the least I could do really, since you’re going to help me get the furniture back to the house.”

“Sure, I guess I’m getting a little hungry,” Cheryl agreed. Toni smiled to herself as they started over.

They each grabbed a tray and made their way down the line, selecting the food they wanted. Once they’d gotten their food and drinks, Toni paid for the both of them, and they found an empty table by a big window overlooking the edge of the city and sat there. Toni glanced outside for a second, noticing the sun starting to dip already, indicative of the summer coming to an end, she supposed.

As they ate, Toni joked, “I guess it’s genius marketing, actually, to add a restaurant at the end of that long ass walk through the gallery floor.”

“Yeah, they definitely know what they’re doing,” Cheryl agreed as she took a bite of her food. She’d opted for the vegetarian version of the classic Ikea Swedish Meatballs, but Toni had gone for the real thing. She thought maybe they were a little overhyped, but they weren’t bad.

“Hey, seriously, thanks for coming with me,” Toni said, drawing Cheryl’s eyes toward her. “I feel like I was sort of in over my head. I’ve never really gone furniture shopping before, so.”

“Never?” Cheryl asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“No. The last place I moved into—my old apartment—was the only place I ever needed to furnish, and my best friend knew someone who had just graduated college and was getting rid of all her stuff, so she basically gave it all to me,” Toni explained. “I mean, she also charged me only like fifty bucks for all of it, so it really was a win-win.”

“I guess this house is the only place I’ve furnished from the ground up as well,” Cheryl admitted. “Not that I did much furnishing, other than my room. But I guess I’ve been furniture shopping with friends for their places before, so.”

“So, you and Veronica, Betty, Josie… you’re all seniors, right?” Toni inquired, hoping that the topic change wasn’t too abrupt.

“Mmhmm. Well, except Josie, she graduated early last semester.”

“Gotcha. And you guys have lived in this house since…”

“Since after freshman year,” Cheryl answered, “so just over two years. We all lived on campus before that—not my favorite experience.”

“I feel you. My dormmate freshman year _sucked_ ,” Toni said. Cheryl gave her a curious look, like she wanted to ask why, but wasn’t going to. Toni explained further, “We were the same major, but she thought she was so much better than me, because she went to this private high school and I went to a shitty public school. And she had like, way more stuff than me, so my half of the dorm looked basically empty compared to hers, and I think that sort of fed into her feeling superior to me or something. And she actively went _out_ of her way to get _in_ my way. Seriously. She wouldn’t have people over for weeks, and then I would tell her that I was going to be up late studying, and she would show up with a friend and they would be talking and hanging out on her bed for hours while I was studying right across the room.” Toni rolled her eyes at the memory.

“She sounds like a bitch,” Cheryl stated.

“She was, and she was the reason I decided to get a place with my friends after freshman year, even if it was a little less convenient,” Toni admitted.

Cheryl hummed, taking another bite of her food. When she swallowed, she asked, “But you were still willing to apartment hunt on Craigslist?” Toni laughed, rolling a meatball around under her fork absently.

“Well, firstly, sharing a house or an apartment with people is way different than sharing a bedroom with them,” Toni stated. “Secondly, I had like, two weeks to get out of my lease and move to the city, I didn’t have a lot of options. And it’s not like it didn’t work out just fine.”

Cheryl looked like she wanted to say something in response to that, but she stayed quiet, and they both finished their food in the next minute or so. Toni felt sort of giddy at the fact that she and Cheryl had just had an actual conversation, and even though she had yet to get a smile from the redhead, she felt like she had made progress in befriending her third roommate.

When they finished eating, they brought their trays to the garbage area and finally started toward the warehouse part of Ikea. Surprisingly—or maybe it shouldn’t have been surprising at this point—they had to navigate through another area, called the marketplace, which was filled with smaller items that one might need to fill their home. Toni felt tempted to look at multiple things that she passed, but she resisted, knowing that they still had to spend time getting all the furniture and checking out.

The warehouse area was huge, like everything else in this store, and Toni pulled out her phone to navigate them to the correct aisles to grab all the stuff she’d picked out. Some of the boxes were pretty heavy, but she and Cheryl had no problem getting them onto the dolly-like cart they’d grabbed. It also made Toni realize that Cheryl _must_ work out, because when she was helping lift the box for the desk, Toni noticed her toned biceps and they made Toni’s mouth go dry.

When they checked out, Toni was happy to see that she hadn’t spent that much money on all of the furniture pieces, considering she’d picked the cheapest options of everything she’d decided on. She paid quickly, and when they left the store, Cheryl went to go get her car as Toni waited with the stuff.

She busied herself on her phone as she waited and realized she had missed a text from Sweet Pea.

**Messaging: Sweet Pea**

**Sweet Pea – Yo, T. I’m bored. What’s up?**

**Sweet Pea – Dude stop ignoring me, I know you’re off of work.**

Toni rolled her eyes to herself as she quickly texted her friend back.

**Toni – You’re so needy. I took a trip to Ikea to finally get some furniture.**

**Sweet Pea – Oh sweet. I didn’t realize you hadn’t gotten any yet.**

**Toni – Yeah, I was holding out for my paycheck, but I decided to go early. I’m supposed to get paid after this weekend I think, so it’s fine. I have the money.**

**Sweet Pea – Oh I know you’re gonna be fine, you’re making it big up in the city.**

**Toni – I’m not making it that big.**

**Sweet Pea – Well, you’re making way bigger bucks that you were here lmao.**

**Toni – You’re not wrong.**

Toni looked up as she saw Cheryl’s red BMW backing into one of the spots, and she carefully pulled the cart over to the car. Cheryl climbed out of driver’s side, flipping some of her hair over her shoulder as she walked around to the back, opening the trunk. Toni watched as she reached in to fold down the back seats, making plenty of room for the boxes they needed to load in.

It took them only a minute or so to load up Cheryl’s car, and then they brought the cart to a return area and got back in Cheryl’s car, ready to head back. “Guess we have to get all that stuff upstairs,” Toni realized, glancing over her shoulder at all the boxes as she buckled her seatbelt.

“It’ll be fine. Betty and Veronica are probably back now, and Betty will probably get freaked out and offer to spot us,” Cheryl said, smirking a little.

“Betty seems like such a mom friend,” Toni said with a chuckle, as Cheryl pulled the car out of the parking spot.

“Yeah, she definitely is.”

“So you’ve like, known Betty for a long ass time, right?” Toni asking, hoping to not have another silent car ride.

“Yeah,” Cheryl answered. “We grew up in the same hometown and went to school together.”

“That’s cool that you guys are still friends.”

“Actually, we weren’t really friends until college,” Cheryl admitted. “We were both on the cheer squad in high school, but we didn’t hang out much before we came to the city.”

“Oh, well that’s still cool.”

“I guess so,” Cheryl agreed with a shrug.

“I only had a handful of close friends in high school,” Toni said, “and two of them are still my best friends. The ones I mentioned I moved in with after freshman year of college.” Cheryl nodded, and Toni wondered if Cheryl would ask any follow up questions, but none came, and the car went silent.

As they got closer to the house, the silence was broken, surprisingly, by Cheryl saying, “Hey, about earlier… when you heard me in the bathroom.”

Toni looked at the girl, whose dark eyes were focusing intently on the road ahead of her. “Yeah?”

“Do you mind not mentioning that to Veronica or Betty?” Cheryl asked.

“Of course, I wasn’t going to say anything to anyone about it,” Toni assured her, wondering if Cheryl really thought she might do that.

“Thanks,” Cheryl said softly.

Toni looked ahead of them, noting that they were getting close to the house now. “I mean, you’re almost definitely gonna find me crying on my floor while I’m putting all this shit together, so we’ll be even pretty soon.”

She glanced back at Cheryl just in time to, _finally_ , see a smile spread across Cheryl’s lips, and Toni felt herself fill up with pride as she bit back a grin.

They got back to the house shortly after, and sure enough, Betty’s car was parked, indicating that she and Veronica were back. It seemed like the two of them carpooled to campus almost every day, so when Betty was back, Veronica usually was, too.

As Cheryl and Toni carried the first box inside, Betty immediately said, “Oh my god, do you guys need a spotter?” and Toni couldn’t help the laugh that escaped her lips, and she saw an amused smile come to Cheryl’s face.

* * *

Later that night, Toni had managed to put together one of her nightstands before deciding that that was enough effort for the night. After showering and getting into comfortable pajamas for the night, she quietly made her way downstairs to get a quick snack before bed. She found Veronica in the kitchen, microwaving some leftovers or something.

“Hey,” Toni greeted with a smile.

“Hey!” Veronica looked curiously at Toni. “So you finally have some furniture, huh?”

“Some,” Toni agreed, going to the pantry and finding her bag of potato chips. “I put in an Amazon order for a bedframe and I ordered a mattress for delivery from Ikea, because we couldn’t fit it. But I still have to put it all together, too.”

“Isn’t that what you’ve been doing up there for a couple of hours?” Veronica asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“Uh, yeah, I put together one of the nightstands.”

Veronica smirked. “If you need any help, I happen to be great at building Ikea furniture.”

“It’s fine, I just had to get the hang of it,” Toni insisted. She poured some of the chips into a bowl—portion control, she told herself—and then put the bag away. “I’ll finish up throughout the week, I guess. I’m just happy to finally have places to put things.”

“I was a little surprised to see that Cheryl went with you,” Veronica admitted. “It seemed like she hasn’t really warmed up to you yet.”

“Oh,” Toni said, starting to snack on the chips. “Yeah, she said she was bored, and I needed someone with a car to help, so she tagged along. I’d never been to Ikea before, so.”

Veronica gasped. “Never? That is like, the saddest thing I’ve heard all day.” Toni smirked. “Well, I’m a little sad that I couldn’t be the one to take your Ikea virginity,” she continued, causing Toni to snort with laughter, “but I’m glad that you’ve had that experience now.” She joined in laughing at herself with Toni for a moment, and then the microwave beeped, and she pulled out her bowl of leftovers. “Really, though, I’m glad that you and Cheryl are getting along a little better now.”

Toni shrugged. “Yeah, we’re fine. It’s not a big deal either way,” she insisted, not wanting to sound overly enthusiastic about getting friendlier with Cheryl. “But it is nice that she doesn’t seem to hate me as much anymore.”

“She doesn’t hate you,” Veronica insisted with a laugh, grabbing a fork from the silverware drawer. “Well, I should get to my homework. It’s not gonna do itself.”

“Unfortunately not,” Toni agreed. “Night, Veronica.”

“Night, Toni!”

The dark haired girl disappeared into her bedroom with her bowl of food, and Toni took her bowl of chips upstairs with her, realizing that she could actually set the bowl down on her assembled nightstand.

As she settled on her air mattress, she felt a little overwhelmed at all of the boxes of things she need to put together and also how much she needed to unpack once she had. She was still glad that she’d finally gone to get the furniture, though, because living without any was definitely starting to get annoying.

However, she couldn’t deny that the best part of her day had been that moment in the car, when Cheryl had finally smiled after the whole outing. Toni thought about her afternoon with the redhead and felt her heartrate quicken a little. Yeah, this little crush she’d developed was definitely still there. She just hoped that as she and Cheryl, hopefully, became friends, the crush would dissipate. There wasn’t even much reason for Toni to have a crush on her. Sure, she was beautiful, but Toni knew very little about her.

She blew out a breath after she finished her nighttime snack, getting up to go brush her teeth and finish getting ready for bed. As she left her bedroom, however, she saw Cheryl walking out of the bathroom, her body wrapped only in a towel and her long hair damp, apparently having just gotten out of the shower. Toni froze, her eyes glued to the girl’s exposed legs and her bare arms. Thankfully, Cheryl didn’t seem to notice her as she padded into her room, closing the door behind her.

Toni released a breath, relaxing a little.

Yeah, it didn’t really seem like this crush was going anywhere any time soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahh! What did y'all think of that one? When I start writing a story, I usually think of a few key things I want to happen, and this was one of them. Well, originally it wasn't going to be Ikea necessarily, but I freaking love Ikea and I figured it would be a lot more fun that way sooo! Seriously, Ikea is a 10/10 date, at least in my experience :P (also their vegan meatballs are actually pretty good, and I never even liked real meatballs)
> 
> Again, thank you all for the kudos, comments, tweets and DMs giving me feedback on this fic! I literally get excited every time I see a new notification <3 I'm so excited to keep sharing this fic with you guys! Tell me anymore predictions or theories that you have, I love hearing them! And with that, I wish you all a lovely rest of your weekend! See you all on Monday! <3


	5. skipped heartbeats

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cheryl comes home drunk, Toni helps her get to bed, and things between them seem... better?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello lovelies and good afternoon!  
> I am happy to report that I am managing to get this update out before I get on a very important phone call - this recruiter for this job I've been interviewing for just texted me and said she HAS MY OFFER AND SHE WANTS TO CALL AND DISCUSS WITH ME?!?! YA GIRL IS GETTING A JOB?!?!
> 
> Yeah so we're really winning today! I hope that you guys like this chapter, this is another one of my favorites! (You're gonna hear me say that a lot in this story to be honest)
> 
> Enjoy!x

It was over a week later—on a Friday—that Toni’s room was finally fully furnished. It had taken her a few days to put together her shelf, desk, desk chair, and the second nightstand, mostly because of work, and then her bedframe and mattress got delivered late the following week. So on the following Friday evening, she finally got to make her actual bed, after deflating and folding up her air mattress, which she then shoved underneath her bed.

Her room was also fully unpacked, her few belongings filling up her shelf and her desk covered with her laptop and a few other items. She’d opted to buy a little hanging shelf type thing for her closet rather than a whole dresser to hold her pants and anything else that couldn’t hang on hangers. The room was perhaps lacking in a cohesive aesthetic, but Toni didn’t really mind, because she was just happy to finally have her space feel put together.

In that same time span, about a week and a half, Toni’s life fell into a usual routine. On workdays, she was up early to get ready and pack herself a lunch. Sometimes she would see one of her other roommates before she headed out for the day, but usually they weren’t up until she was already gone. At work, she was starting to get a heavier workload, but it was nothing she couldn’t handle, and her lunch breaks with Peaches were a nice pause during a busy workday.

After work, Toni would spend some time relaxing—watching new episodes of her favorite TV shows or scrolling through social media—and then have dinner downstairs around the same time that Veronica and Betty would be eating. Archie was there about half the time, which lined up with Cheryl’s original assertion that Archie stayed over about half of the time. Sometimes Cheryl would also be eating at the same time as them, but Toni noticed that she tended to wait a little longer before coming down for dinner.

She’d been chatting on the phone a lot with Sweet Pea and Fangs, who were not very subtle about how much they missed her. Sweet Pea was starting his transition to a full time software developer position at the company he had interned with two summers in a row, putting him in a similar job as Toni, but with more of a focus on backend development. Fangs, who wouldn’t have ever been caught dead majoring in a computer science, had been working as a tattoo artist for a few years, and from what he told Toni, that wasn’t changing anytime soon, degree or not. However, he and Joaquin had apparently broken up officially, and Toni felt bad that she couldn’t comfort her friend with a few bottles of beer and a night of shitting on romantic comedies.

The previous weekend, Toni had hung out with her roommates—but mostly just Veronica and Betty, except for on Saturday night, when they invited over Josie and Archie and Cheryl finally came down to hang out with everyone. Other than that, Toni hadn’t seen much of Cheryl since their Ikea outing.

Actually, she was maybe trying to fight her urge to talk to Cheryl anytime she did see her in passing. She kept considering the fact that she had a crush on her _roommate_ and that it was probably a bad idea, but even though she wasn’t actively trying to talk to Cheryl, her crush remained.

Tonight, Friday night, Toni had planned to stay in and hang out with Veronica and Betty, but after she finished setting up her bed and headed downstairs, she found that all three of her roommates had decided that they were going out to a college party. Betty invited Toni, but she refused, not really feeling like partying with a bunch of strangers. They wished her a good night and headed out together—Archie had picked them up—and Toni was left to her own devices.

The worst part of living in the city without many friends was definitely filling free time like this. She wanted to just hang out with her best friends, not doing much of anything, but she couldn’t really. But that didn’t mean she couldn’t at least try.

**Group Message: Fangs and Sweet Pea**

**Toni – Are you guys busy? I’m bored. Let’s play Xbox?**

Toni hadn’t bothered setting up her Xbox—which had been her graduation present to herself in preparation for moving out and not being able to play on Sweet Pea’s anymore—in the house yet, but there was room for it on top of the old fireplace, below the mounted TV. She hadn’t asked her roommates if it was fine for her to put it there, but she didn’t think they would mind.

**Sweet Pea – We’re just eating pizza, so yeah let’s do it!**

**Toni – Gonna set up my Xbox and get my headphones. Gimme a few.**

There was a nice sense of normalcy that came with hooking up her Xbox and pulling on her headphones, pulling the mic down in front of her mouth so that she could use it to talk to her friends in game. They all logged on to one of their favorite online shooting games, and Toni spent a good couple of hours playing and chatting with her friends. It was almost like they were here hanging out with her, except she couldn’t shove them to distract them mid-game. Thankfully, one of them was always willing to give the other a shove for her.

Toni was getting pretty tired as it got later, and when she heard the noise of someone trying to unlock the front door, she told her friends, “Alright, I’m gonna go for the night, I think. Thanks for the games, guys.”

“Of course. We should do it again, it’s almost like you’re not two hours away,” Sweet Pea told her.

“Definitely.” She started to shut down her console. “Talk to you guys later, have a good night.” She shut it down and pulled her headphones off just as the front door was unlocked. Toni stood and placed her headphones next to her Xbox on the mantle, and then checked the front door, which was finally opening.

A clearly very drunk Cheryl was making her way inside, stumbling a little. She seemed to be alone.

“Cheryl?” Toni asked, approaching the girl, who looked at her drunkenly. “Where’s Veronica and Betty?”

“Veronica went home with some guy and Betty is going to Archie’s,” Cheryl answered, sounding like she was focusing very hard on getting the words out correctly. “They just dropped me off.” Toni hummed in response, walking up to her as Cheryl managed to come in all the way, closing the door behind her and then leaning against it. “Whoa. Room’s spinning?”

“No, babe,” Toni said with a laugh, not sure why the term slipped out but feeling her cheeks warm as she realized she’d said it, “I think you’re just drunk.”

Cheryl held up two fingers pinched close together. “Lil bit.”

“How about some water?” Toni suggested, taking a step back toward the kitchen.

“Mmhmm, okay,” Cheryl murmured. “Jus’… one problem…”

“Yeah?”

“If I move, I think I’m gonna fall,” Cheryl admitted.

Toni took a step closer to Cheryl, offering her hand to the woman. “Here, how about I help you to the couch, and then I’ll get you some water?”

“Yeah…” Cheryl stretched the word out long, and Toni tried not to chuckle as she grabbed Cheryl’s hand and carefully pulled her toward the living room. As she came away from the door and immediately wobbled, Toni landed her hand on her waist to steady her. Cheryl sucked in a breath, and Toni was holding one in herself, her heart beating fast at the close contact she was having with the redhead.

She carefully walked Cheryl into the living room and saw that she was sitting safely on the couch before Toni went into the kitchen to pour her a glass of water. When she brought it back into the living room, Cheryl’s head was rested back against the top of the couch cushions, her eyes trained on the ceiling. “You okay?” Toni asked, coming to sit next to her and handing her the glass of water.

“I hate popcorn ceilings,” Cheryl mused, and Toni glanced up, looking at the popcorn ceiling of the house. Toni wasn’t really one to notice ceilings, so she chuckled a little at Cheryl’s comment.

“Drink some water,” Toni told her, and Cheryl begrudgingly obeyed the request, pulling her head upright so she could take a few gulps of the water. “How was the party?”

“Boring,” Cheryl answered.

“Oh yeah? That’s why you’re so drunk?” Toni asked, unbelieving.

Cheryl’s dark, glassy eyes moved to look at Toni. “I was bored, so I got a few drinks. So what?”

“Hey, no judgment,” Toni insisted. “Was Josie at the party?”

“Mmhmm, she was mostly hanging out with Kevin and his friends.”

“Kevin?” Toni asked, lifting an eyebrow.

“He’s a musical theater major,” Cheryl answered.

“Are they like, dating?”

Cheryl laughed at that, and Toni furrowed her eyebrows until she clarified, “No, he’s gayer than I am.” Toni hummed in understanding, and then watched as Cheryl suddenly looked very thoughtful, before saying, “No, actually, I think I’m pro’lly gayer than him.”

Toni laughed at that, and Cheryl’s gaze shifted back to her. “So you don’t like Kevin and his friends?”

Cheryl shrugged. “They’re fine. I just don’t like… people.” Toni laughed again, but Cheryl seemed dead serious. “Really. People just… don’t get me. Or maybe I just don’t get people.”

“You know, you’re not the only one who feels that way,” Toni insisted. “Most people probably feel like the world doesn’t get them.”

Cheryl sighed, looking pretty sad all of the sudden as she took another sip of her water. “I guess.”

“If it makes you feel better, I definitely get it. I sort of felt that way for all of high school. My living situation was kind of… fucked up. Sometimes even my best friends didn’t get it,” Toni explained, not sure why she was admitting this to Cheryl, who had barely given her the time of day for most of the time since Toni had moved in. It was just something about that sad look on her face that made Toni want to make her feel better.

Cheryl leaned forward tentatively, setting the water cup on the coffee table before relaxing back into the couch cushions. She turned her head to look at Toni, and said, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” Toni insisted. “That was years ago.”

“No, not about that,” Cheryl said, before cringing a little and clarifying, “I mean, I’m sorry about that, too, but I meant… I’m sorry for how I’ve been treating you since you moved in.”

“Oh,” Toni said in surprise, pulling one of her legs up underneath herself as she felt nerves creeping up. “Don’t worry about, it’s fine.”

“You’re actually not so bad,” Cheryl admitted, as though it were a compliment. However, from Cheryl, it actually did feel kind of like one. “I just… miss having Josie around.”

“I get it,” Toni told her, feeling a little weird about this conversation since Cheryl was so drunk. She felt like she was going to hear something that Cheryl would never say in front of her normally. Although, maybe she already had.

“She was like, the first person who _got_ me in so long when we became friends,” Cheryl said, “and I guess just not having her around sucks. But it’s not your fault. You just needed a place to live.”

“This is true,” Toni agreed with a chuckle. “But don’t worry about it.”

Cheryl looked at Toni, clearly unconvinced that Toni hadn’t been bothered. “Really? You really don’t care?”

“Okay, maybe I was a little frustrated by it,” Toni gave in, “but seriously, it’s not that big of a deal.”

Cheryl’s eyes closed, and she breathed out a long sigh. “You’re a much better person than I am. I would’ve given myself hell.” Toni smiled a little, even though Cheryl wasn’t looking at her now. She couldn’t help but observe the soft features of Cheryl’s pale, beautiful face. She wished that Cheryl wasn’t drunk in this moment, because she was pretty sure that the next morning, Cheryl might not even remember her own apology.

“We should probably get you to bed,” Toni finally said, when it became apparent that Cheryl was falling asleep. “Let me help you upstairs?”

Cheryl let Toni help her up from the couch and to the stairs, but she was clearly not happy about it. Toni found herself keeping one hand wrapped around her waist to steady her as they carefully made it upstairs, Cheryl wobbling the whole way. Thankfully, they made it to the landing with no issue, and Cheryl pressed her hands on either side of the hallway as she made her way toward her room.

“You going to get to bed okay?”

“Mmhmm, yeah,” Cheryl answered. “Thanks, Toni.”

Toni smiled a little to herself. “No problem, Cheryl. Goodnight.”

Cheryl shut herself into her room, and Toni sighed, staring at the closed door. What was happening to her?

* * *

Toni woke up at eight-thirty to the sound of vomiting coming from the bathroom, and it took her a minute to realize that’s what the sound was. She couldn’t say she was surprised exactly, but she didn’t know exactly how much Cheryl had drank the previous night. Toni wondered if she should go check on her, and after a couple of minutes of debating with herself, she dragged herself out of bed—despite how early it was—and pulled a hoodie over her tank top. She slowly poked out of her room, and just as she was, she saw Cheryl disappearing back into her bedroom.

Toni sighed, supposing that she should probably not follow Cheryl to her bedroom just to check on her—if she was out of the bathroom already, she was probably okay. She would definitely need food later, though. And Toni didn’t know when Veronica would be home, but there was no doubt that she’d gotten just as drunk as Cheryl had been the night before.

Toni wasn’t known for her cooking, by any means, but the one thing she could do well was pancakes, which also happened to be her favorite hangover food.

So despite feeling a little tired still, Toni decided to win some roommate points and quickly went to the bathroom to brush her teeth and get ready a little before heading downstairs to make some pancakes.

Fortunately, most of the necessary ingredients for pancakes were in the shared area of the pantry since they were mostly bulk items. Toni got to work making the batter. She made a little bit of a mess with some of the flour, but pretty soon she had her batter all done, and she started heating a pan with some butter.

She’d made over half of the batter into pancakes, which she was keeping warm in the oven, by the time she heard the front door open, a sigh of relief accompanying the sound. She heard Veronica croak out, “Cheryl? Are you cooking?”

Toni laughed a little and glanced over her shoulder as Veronica came into the kitchen, looking a little bit of a mess. “No, Cheryl was emptying her stomach an hour ago.”

“Ugh, we got so drunk,” Veronica muttered, running her hand through her hair, “and then here I am doing the fucking walk of shame.”

“Well, I’m making pancakes. Best hangover food,” Toni told Veronica, turning her attention back to the stove.

“I thought you didn’t cook?” Veronica asked.

“I cook literally one thing well, and it’s pancakes.”

“Well, you won’t hear me complaining. I’m just gonna go get changed and cleaned up,” Veronica said, and Toni heard her go into her room. Smiling to herself, Toni continued to make the pancakes.

Not even a minute later, she heard someone—Cheryl, obviously—coming down the stairs, and when she glanced over her shoulder, the girl was leaning against the kitchen island. She wore an oversized college hoodie and shorts, and she looked like she felt miserable. “Morning,” Toni greeted.

“Are you cooking?” Cheryl asked, clearly confused.

“Making pancakes,” she answered.

“Why? You’ve literally never done more than make a sandwich or heat up a frozen meal since you moved in,” Cheryl said, her throat sounding a little scratchy.

Toni was glad that she was facing away from Cheryl as her cheeks turned a little pink. “Pancakes are the best hangover food.”

Cheryl was quiet for a moment, but then Toni heard her walking behind her, and the fridge opened to Toni’s left. She glanced at Cheryl again to see that she was grabbing the water filter. A moment later, when Cheryl had poured herself a glass of water, returned back to her spot on the other side of the island, and had taken a sip, she said, “So I woke you up this morning?”

“Maybe.”

“How is that I wake you up early on a Saturday morning because I got wasted last night, and you end up making me breakfast?” Cheryl asked in disbelief. Toni glanced over her shoulder again, seeing one of Cheryl’s eyebrows raised as she questioned the girl. Toni just shrugged, not sure of the best way to answer the question. “Also… I don’t remember a lot of last night. Just you getting me water and helping me upstairs, so… thanks.”

“No problem.” Toni gave Cheryl a smile and turned her attention back to the pancakes on the stove, which she quickly flipped over. Once they were cooking on their opposite side, she grabbed a potholder and opened the oven to pull out the plate of pancakes that was keeping warm inside. She turned around and set the plate on the island. “Help yourself.”

As Cheryl made herself a plate of breakfast, Toni silently wondered how much of the previous night Cheryl did remember—whether she remembered apologizing to Toni or not. She knew it would be weird to ask, so she didn’t, but she couldn’t help but wonder.

Veronica came out of her bedroom right as Toni finished the last pancakes. “Toni, where have you been all my life,” Veronica said dramatically, as she loaded a plate with pancakes. She glanced into the dining room and saw Cheryl and said, “Oh, morning, Cher! How you feeling?”

“Like shit,” Cheryl answered.

Veronica chuckled. “Yeah, same.” Toni made herself a plate of pancakes as well, covering them in butter and maple syrup, and followed Veronica into the dining room to join Cheryl, who had only taken a few small bites so far, understandably. Veronica took her first bite of the pancakes and practically moaned. “Seriously, Toni,” she said, through her mouthful of food, “I could marry you right now.”

Toni laughed a little, taking a bite as well. She smiled to herself as she realized that the pancakes had turned out really great. “Glad you like them. How was your night, by the way?” She lifted her eyebrow at the dark haired girl, who smirked a little.

“It was great. Well, mostly. This morning he was being weirdly clingy, but I was feeling like shit, obviously, so I had to get out quick. Especially after I barfed into his toilet while I was trying to tug on my dress again.”

“Can we please not talk about barf while we’re eating?” Cheryl pleaded, looking like she didn’t feel so great. She took a sip of her water and seemed to relax a little.

“Sorry. But yeah, the sex was great. Morning after, not so much. But now I’m eating these incredible pancakes, so I have zero complaints,” Veronica insisted. “How was your night last night?”

“Oh it was good. I setup my Xbox in the living room—hope that was okay, I can move it when I’m not using it if you guys want,” Toni said.

“Oh no, that’s fine,” Veronica insisted.

“Cool. But yeah, I played some online games with my friends. It was nice, since we don’t really get the opportunity to just chill anymore,” Toni explained.

Veronica nodded. “Well, if they’re ever in the city, we should all hang out!”

“I’m not sure I see them coming to the city anytime soon, but if they do, definitely,” Toni agreed with a chuckle.

“They’re guys, right? I think you’ve mentioned them before,” Veronica said.

“Yeah, Sweet Pea and Fangs.”

Cheryl suddenly gave her a funny look. “Those are their names?”

“Yes?” Toni answered, laughing a little. “Well, nicknames of course. But yeah.”

“Are either of them hot?” Veronica asked with a grin.

“One of them is gay as hell, the other one is… I mean, I guess he’s average to above average,” Toni answered with a chuckle. “I don’t know, I don’t really think of him like that. He’s been my best friend for like, ever, he’s like my brother.”

“That’s sweet.” Veronica bobbed her head a little, shoveling down some more of her breakfast. “Well, glad you got to spend some virtual time with them, sorry they’re so far away.”

“Yeah, it’s okay,” Toni said with a shrug. “So, what’s your Saturday look like?”

“I have a midterm project I really need to start,” Veronica admitted. “I mean, I have a few weeks still, but it’s a big project and if I wait too long, I’m gonna have to cram for midterms and work on it a ton and that’ll just be a whole mess, so. Yeah, probably gonna start that.”

“Yeah, I do not miss exams or projects by any means.”

“What are you up to today, Cher?” Veronica asked, glancing at the redhead, who looked a little less queasy now and had eaten about half of her breakfast.

“No clue. Definitely a shower. Maybe then I’ll sleep the rest of this hangover off.”

“You drank so much last night, I’m honestly surprised that you made it upstairs last night,” Veronica teased, and Cheryl’s gaze suddenly jumped to meet Toni’s. They both looked away from each other immediately, though. For some reason, neither of them spoke up about how Toni had helped Cheryl upstairs, even though it wasn’t a weird thing to have happened.

They finished breakfast in a comfortable silence, and then Cheryl was the first to excuse herself. She quietly thanked Toni for the pancakes, quickly washed up her plate, and disappeared upstairs. Toni heard the water come on, telling her that the girl had probably slipped into the shower.

“Yeah, thanks again for the pancakes, Toni,” Veronica said, as she stretched her arms up above her head. “If there’s enough left, I’ll probably have some more for lunch later.”

“Go for it,” Toni told her. She got up and took Veronica plate, getting another silly comment about how Veronica would “seriously marry” her. Toni laughed as she washed the two plates and put the leftover pancakes into Ziploc bags in the freezer for later. Veronica excused herself to her room to shower as well, and Toni finished washing up all of the dishes from her pancake making.

She kept up being productive by going upstairs and starting her laundry in the washer, before getting on her bed and relaxing on the mattress. It had been so good to sleep in a real bed for once, and her back was definitely thanking her this morning. Just from how comfortable it was, she could probably fall right back asleep and sleep through the whole rest of the day if she tried.

She heard the shower stop after a while and heard the bathroom and Cheryl’s bedroom door opening and closing a couple of times. She’d left her door open so she could clearly hear when the washing machine would finish, but she was surprised when she saw Cheryl appear in her doorway, wearing sweats and a tank top, her wet hair twisted up into a bun on top of her head.

“Hey,” Cheryl said softly, as if she didn’t already have Toni’s full attention. She leaned against Toni’s doorframe.

“Hey,” Toni answered, sitting up a little on her bed.

Cheryl was looking around her room curiously. “You finally have a real room.”

“Yeah,” Toni agreed, smiling, “it’s a relief honestly. Turns out that air mattresses are not kind on your back.”

“Gee, really?” Cheryl asked sarcastically, rolling her eyes but in a playful way. Toni’s smile stretched wider. After a pause, Cheryl said, “Thanks again for breakfast, and last night.”

“Of course.”

“Also… I didn’t say anything stupid last night, right?” Cheryl asked, cringing a little as she asked the question. “When I’m drunk… I usually talk a lot, and it’s usually more than people really need to hear.”

Toni couldn’t help herself as she joked, “No, although you did call me the sexiest woman alive.” Cheryl’s eyes widened, and Toni would’ve laughed if she didn’t instantly feel bad for her joke. “Oh my god, I’m kidding.” Cheryl relaxed a little, but her eyebrows furrowed now as she glared, rightfully so, at Toni. “You just asked if the room was spinning, told me about Josie’s friend Kevin who does musical theater and is totally _not_ gayer than you, and you… told me about how you miss having Josie around.” Toni decided not to mention the apology or the fact that Cheryl had said she felt like no one understood her. She didn’t want to make her uncomfortable, and Toni hadn’t considered either of those things to be stupid at all.

Cheryl was blushing a little. “Drunk me is right, I’m definitely gayer than Kevin.”

Toni laughed, noticing Cheryl’s slight smile. “How do you measure that?”

“Well, he’s gay, but doesn’t hate women. I’m also gay, but hate most men, so.”

Toni smirked. “Okay, I guess that’s fair.”

“Well, I’m glad I didn’t say anything stupid. Anyway. I think I am going to try and sleep a little more. You should too, considering I woke you up so early,” Cheryl said.

“Yeah, maybe I will once I move my laundry.”

Cheryl glanced over her shoulder and toward the laundry room, nodding. She stood up straight, no longer leaning on the doorframe, and blew out a breath. “Well, I guess I’ll see you later.”

“Sure,” Toni responded, biting on the inside of her cheek. “Have a good nap.”

“Thanks,” Cheryl said, meeting her eyes for a second before she started walking back down the hallway. Toni didn’t realize how hard her heart was beating until Cheryl was gone, and then she could feel it thumping in her chest.

Apparently, making pancakes for roommate points was really the way to go.

* * *

“Hey, Sweets, what’s up?” Toni asked into the phone later that day. She’d ended up taking a nap after switching her laundry, taking Cheryl’s suggestion, and had awoken around lunch time. Not feeling hungry, she’d decided to play some games on her Xbox and chill in the living room until she felt like eating. Maybe part of her had hoped that Cheryl would come down at some point, too, but it was well into the afternoon now, and Toni hadn’t seen any sign of the redhead since this morning.

She had just started throwing herself together a small lunch when Sweet Pea called her. “Hey,” he answered, “how’s your Saturday?”

“It’s fine,” she answered, thinking about how much she’d enjoyed her morning. She decided not to tell Sweet Pea about it, though, because he hadn’t answered her inquiry upon her picking up the phone.

“Cool.”

“Sweets, I asked you what’s up, and you didn’t answer, which is making me think that whatever it is, you don’t want to say,” Toni told him, lifting an eyebrow as she finished making a ham and cheese sandwich. She made her way back to the living room, setting her plate on the coffee table.

“Oh. Right, yeah. Um, your uncle stopped by this morning,” Sweet Pea said.

Toni furrowed her eyebrows. “What? What did he want? What did you tell him?”

“Nothing,” Sweet Pea answered quickly. “I mean—he heard from your grandparents that you’d moved for a job, and he wanted your new address. Did you give it to your grandparents?”

“No,” Toni answered, “just told them I’d be in the city. Did you give him my address?”

“No,” Sweet Pea assured her, “I didn’t. I told him I didn’t know it. He started demanding that I tell you to call him and shit, or for me to give him your number. I think he scared Luke.” It took Toni a second to remember that Luke was the guy that Sweet Pea and Fangs had found on a university Facebook page who’d ended up taking her old room.

“Well, I’m not fucking calling him,” Toni said harshly into the phone.

“I’m not saying you should. Although, if he keeps coming by here, that might be a problem.”

“Well, I’m not calling him,” Toni snapped again. “No, he literally hasn’t cared to speak to me in over four years. He hears I got a job in the city, and he probably wants fucking money. I’m not calling him.”

“I’m not saying you should!” Sweet Pea defended. “Maybe you should call your Nana or something.”

Toni huffed out a breath, getting up from the couch. She started toward the stairs, worried that Veronica may have heard her raise her voice through the wall. She climbed the stairs as she said, “Maybe. You really think he’ll come by again if he doesn’t hear from me?”

“I don’t know, but he seemed pretty unhinged. Like, more so than I remember him. Or maybe I’ve just blocked most of my memory of him out by now.”

Toni groaned. “He’s always been an asshole. He was probably fucked up on some shit,” she said, as she reached the top of the stairs and started for her door. As she crossed the hallway, she noticed Cheryl walking out of her room, looking a little concerned. She must’ve heard Toni on the phone.

Toni gave her the best smile she could muster, and then entered her room, closing the door purposefully. “Probably. I’m sorry, T, I know you want nothing to do with him. You should probably tell your grandparents not to give him updates about you.”

“They won’t listen,” Toni muttered, “they don’t get it. Plus, he’s been taking advantage of them for money for years. They’re probably happy to redirect him to me. And he’d probably rattle off some bullshit about how he _let me_ live with him for years and that it’s the least I could do to pay him back.”

“Yeah, well, we know he’s not a good guy, so that wouldn’t be surprise me. But you really think your grandparents wouldn’t listen?”

Toni rolled her eyes. “I guess it would depend what kind of mood they’re in. It’s like sometimes they care, and sometimes they just don’t. But it doesn’t fucking matter. I’ll call them and have them make sure he doesn’t come by the apartment again. I’m sorry, Sweets.”

“It’s fine. It was just super fucking weird, since we haven’t seen or heard from him in so long.”

“Yeah. Fuck,” Toni groaned. “I’ll call my Nana now.”

“Okay. Sorry, Toni.”

“It’s fine. I’ll text you later.”

Toni hung up the call, and reluctantly found her Nana’s number, dialing it and taking in a breath as she brought the phone up to her ear.

“Hello?” her Nana asked into the phone—it was a landline, and her Nana never knew it was her calling.

“Hey, Nana, it’s Toni,” Toni said, trying to sound actually interested in calling.

“Oh, Toni, good afternoon. How is the city?”

Toni smiled a little, appreciating her Nana’s effort to sound like she cared, when Toni knew that she didn’t really, not much anyway. “It’s good. Hey, sorry to interrupt your Saturday, but Sweet Pea told me that Tristan came by the apartment today asking for my new address. I was wondering if you could ask him not to go by there anymore.”

“Why don’t you just ask him yourself?” her Nana inquired.

Toni rolled her eyes. “Nana, you know that I don’t talk to Tristan anymore.”

“Well, he is your family, _Antoinette_ , you shouldn’t cut him out completely.”

“Right, well, do you think you could pass on the message? If he comes to the apartment again, I’m going to tell Sweets to call the cops, because I don’t even live there anymore, which he _knows_ since you and Grandpa told him.”

“Well, what were we supposed to tell him?”

Toni sighed, closing her eyes. “I don’t know. Could you just ask him not to go by Sweet Pea’s place again? I’m not there.”

“Fine, yes, I’ll tell him,” her Nana said, sounding a little frustrated. “You should really fight your own battles, Toni.”

Toni bit down on her lip, hard, to keep from saying something harsh to her Nana. She really tried with her grandparents, but sometimes her Nana drove her insane. Way more so than her Grandpa, who was usually much more understanding. Unfortunately, they shared a landline, and her Nana almost always answered. “I know,” Toni finally said, despite herself. “Thanks, Nana.”

“Sure.”

“Have a good Saturday.”

“You, too.”

The line went dead, and Toni groaned, opening her texts with Sweet Pea.

**Messaging: Sweet Pea**

**Toni – Nana said she’s going to ask him not to come by. I told her that if he does again, you’re going to call the cops.**

**Sweet Pea – Uh, not sure calling the cops would’ve been my next step.**

**Toni – Well, it got her to agree to talk to him, so. Let me know if he bothers you guys anymore.**

**Sweet Pea – Sure. Sorry again, T.**

**Toni – Don’t worry about it.**

Toni pocketed her phone and sighed as she realized that her sandwich was still down on the coffee table. Groaning, she left the comfort of her room and started back downstairs.

She found Cheryl in the kitchen, making none other than her usual grilled chicken salad. Feeling a frustrated still at the situation, Toni didn’t say anything to the girl, going straight for her plate, but then she realized that she’d left her Xbox on as well, and she sighed, going to turn it off.

“Everything okay?” Cheryl chimed from the kitchen, drawing Toni’s gaze for a moment.

“Yeah, just some shit with my family,” Toni answered.

“Family shit. Yeah, I know about that.”

Toni hummed, quitting her game and turning off the Xbox. She was planning to take her sandwich back up to her room—so that she could be frustrated by herself—but then she glanced at Cheryl again and decided that maybe it would make her feel better to hang around downstairs for a bit. “The walls in this place really are thin, huh?”

“A little bit,” Cheryl answered. “You should be happy that your room isn’t above Betty’s when Archie is staying over.” Toni laughed at the implication that Cheryl was very unhappy about her own room’s position compared to Betty’s. “That’s what I get for wanting my room to not be right next to the laundry room.”

Smiling, Toni sat down in one of the chairs on the side of the living room to eat, so that she could still see Cheryl in the kitchen. “My best friend—Sweet Pea—he called me and said that my uncle is trying to get ahold of me, but my uncle and I… we aren’t really, uh, on speaking terms anymore.”

“Oh,” Cheryl said with a frown, “I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine.”

“I’m in a similar situation, so I get it. It’s frustrating,” Cheryl admitted, but she didn’t elaborate, and Toni didn’t ask her to.

“Yeah. Hopefully it’s dealt with now, but who knows. It’s just a mess, but it’s fine,” Toni said, allowing herself to relax a little finally taking a bite of her sandwich.

Cheryl looked over at her. “I see it’s back to sandwiches and frozen meals.” When Toni tried to meet her gaze, Cheryl’s eyes dropped to refocus on her salad making, but Toni caught the small smile on her face, and felt her heart skip a beat. She rolled her eyes but didn’t even try to hide her own smile. She was liking this new dynamic with Cheryl, although it wasn’t doing anything to curb the feelings Toni was developing for her. No, if Toni’s skipped heartbeats and increased heartrate today were any indication, her feelings were only getting stronger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Cheryl teasing Toni about her eating habits is one of my favorite things in this story oops!  
> I really hope you guys liked that one! <3 We got a little insight on what's up in Toni's life, which led us to a hint maybe about Cheryl's family life? Any new guesses or predictions!
> 
> Okay, I'm gonna go hype myself up for this phone call, the recruiter is calling me in t-minus 5 minutes!!! AH!  
> See you guys on Wednesday, if not sooner on Twitter at @ToriWrtsStories =D Have a lovely rest of your Monday!


	6. a new routine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things between Cheryl and Toni are getting better, but all that's doing is making Toni's crush even worse.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Good afternoon, lovelies!  
> I know it wasn't supposed to be an update day today, but since it's Vanessa Morgan's birthday, I was convinced to move tomorrow's update to today (which means next update will be Thursday). Y'all can thank @chonisational on Twitter for rallying support lmfao.
> 
> This chapter has some cute stuff in it and also is an informative one <3 I hope you guys will enjoy it!xx

The next week passed quite similarly to the previous week, with a few notable differences.

For one, Toni got to sleep in a real bed every night, which was doing wonders for her quality of sleep. She found herself feeling a little more awake at work in the mornings and found herself actually joking around with Peter and Alan, her coworkers, more often. She was discovering that maybe they weren’t so bad, at least not now that they were getting used to her working there. There was also a big new update for the Corinth’s Commerce website coming out soon, so the whole team was working hard to make sure that all the functionalities were there and that the bugs were squashed. One day that week, the whole UI/UX team went out to lunch together, Jughead included, and it was actually nice. She told the team about her abrupt move to the city and mentioned her college aged roommates, and she learned a little about each of her team member’s lives as well. She found out that Jughead spent his time outside of work writing a novel, which Toni thought was pretty cool, and that Peter and Alan were both major gamers. When they heard that she had an Xbox, they immediately wanted to add her as a friend, and she told them she would send them her Xbox live email, but she wasn’t planning to actually do so yet. She still hardly knew them, and she didn’t need them to see when she was playing games online.

Aside from her real bed, improved sleep quality, and growing relationship with her coworkers, Toni was also experiencing a new energy at the house every day. After the previous weekend, Cheryl no longer seemed to avoid being around Toni. She joined the roommates for dinner more often and exchanged small talk with Toni when they passed each other by the bathroom or in the kitchen. It was a really nice change, and it made Toni forget all about the fact that she had been trying to engage with the redhead less in hopes of dampening her crush. Maybe she had realized that it just wasn’t going anywhere.

And maybe that was okay. Maybe she could just endure it for the length of time that she lived in the house. She didn’t know when their lease ended, but if they were following a yearly schedule, she supposed it should be at the end of the spring. Toni planned to live there as long as their current lease lasted, but at that point, she would probably try and get her own place. She could probably put up with the crush for then, and she felt like the chances of it eventually fading away were pretty high, right?

She hadn’t told either of her best friends about her feelings for the redhead roommate who had hated her when she’d moved in, even though Sweet Pea had guessed that she must be attracted to at least one of them based on the fact that Toni had put up with a dumb party to make a good impression. He must’ve mostly been joking, because he hadn’t brought it up again. Toni was glad about that; she really did not want to admit out loud, or even via text, that she found Cheryl to be one of the most attractive people she’d ever seen.

Yeah, maybe that was a bit dramatic, but she really felt like it was true. Something about the confident way she carried herself, combined with her soft curves and her toned figure, made her beyond attractive.

What didn’t make it easier was Cheryl’s new routine that apparently came with the slightly cooler weather that was starting to set in as October crept up on them, and that was early morning jogging. Apparently, Cheryl usually stuck to working out at a nearby gym, but when Toni had seen her come back early one morning, sweating in a thin, black tank top and black running shorts, her long hair clipped up into a messy bun, the younger woman had explained that she liked to jog when it was cooler outside. Every morning since then, a new part of Toni’s routine for getting ready for work had been added: try desperately not to stare at an unfairly sexy, sweaty Cheryl.

Toni had hoped that it was just a weekday activity, because at least on the weekdays Toni could focus on getting herself off to work, but on Saturday morning, she left her room after waking up around eight to see that Cheryl’s bedroom door was hanging open, but the light was off, telling her that the girl was probably already up. Toni wouldn’t usually be up so early, but she’d crashed early the night before after spending the evening going shopping with Peaches, who had insisted that Toni needed to see the city’s galleria mall. It had been fun, but the galleria was huge, leaving Toni beyond tired when she returned home. And after calling it a night fairly early, on Friday, here she was awake at eight in the morning.

Toni readied herself for the day and then headed downstairs to pour herself a bowl of cereal for breakfast, and as she was settling in the dining room to eat, the front door swung open, and a sweaty Cheryl Blossom was coming into the house. She wore her usual black tank top and short running shorts, and her hair was falling out of a loose bun on her head. Her face was bare of any makeup, and her forehead held beads of sweat that she wiped away as she breathed heavily.

Toni didn’t realize she was starting until Cheryl turned her head to look at her and said, “Morning,” breathlessly.

“Good morning,” Toni answered quickly, looking down at her food and hoping that Cheryl hadn’t noticed her staring. “You do this running thing on weekends, too?”

“Mm,” Cheryl hummed, walking through the dining room to the kitchen and pouring herself a glass of water. As she took a long sip of it, she walked back into the dining room, leaning against the wall as she faced Toni and finally said, “Sorry. Out of breath.”

Toni chuckled. “It’s fine.”

“Why are you up so early on a Saturday?” Cheryl wondered.

“Crashed early last night.”

“Long day?” Cheryl wondered.

“I went with Peaches to the galleria,” Toni answered. “I’ve never shopped in such a huge place before. I was exhausted.”

Cheryl smirked a little. “Maybe _you_ need to start jogging in the morning.”

“Yeah no, I’ll leave that to you,” Toni told her with a laugh, taking a bite of her breakfast. “So, what are you doing today?”

Cheryl shrugged. “Dunno. I have some homework to finish at some point.”

“What kind of classes do you even take as a _nutritional science_ major?”

“I’m taking classes mostly in nutrition counseling this semester,” Cheryl answered. “I have a focus in dietetics.”

“And that means…?”

Cheryl’s lips turned up into a small, amused smile. “I want to become a registered nutritional dietician.”

“Oh, that’s cool,” Toni said, not sure why she was a little surprised. “What made you want to do that?”

Cheryl shrugged. “I thought about psychology for a while, but it wasn’t really what I wanted to do. But I’ve always been pretty passionate about nutrition and when I read about it, I just really wanted to do, I guess.”

“So did you switch your major from psychology?” Toni wondered.

Cheryl scoffed a little, but not at Toni, which was clear as she said, “No. My first major was business, actually. But I switched after a year, and I’d already started taking some nutrition classes at that point.”

“Nice. That’s a big change.”

“You’re telling me.”

Toni didn’t ask why Cheryl had gone for business in the first place, because she got the impression that there was a story there, but Cheryl didn’t seem like she wanted to discuss it. “Do you have to get a post-grad degree to become a dietician?”

“No,” Cheryl answered, “they’re changing the requirements in a few years, but right now all you need is the bachelor’s degree, a bunch of internship experience, and to pass the RND exam.”

“Man, one of my favorite things about my degree is that I didn’t need to do much more than actually graduate. Although, I did do one internship, but it wasn’t required or anything,” Toni commented. Cheryl hummed, nodding, and started to pull her hair out from her bun, running her fingers through it.

“I should probably go shower,” she commented, stretching her arms above her. Toni forced her eyes away from her toned biceps. “Guess I’ll see you later.”

“Yeah,” Toni agreed, glancing up again as Cheryl started up the stairs with her glass of water. She couldn’t help but stare, and when Cheryl disappeared upstairs, she released a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. These morning runs were killing her.

* * *

Toni spent Saturday morning doing some cleaning around the house and doing her laundry, and then she took a nap through part of the afternoon. When she woke up, she had texts from Betty and Veronica asking if she and Cheryl wanted to go shopping with them, but it seemed like they had ended up leaving without her. Cheryl had responded to the text with a no, so when Toni left her room in the late afternoon, she guessed that Cheryl’s closed bedroom door meant she was in there.

Toni found that she kept way closer tabs on Cheryl’s schedule than she did on Veronica and Betty’s, and she knew why, but she did feel a little creepy sometimes when she found herself trying to remember what Cheryl would be doing right now.

After a late lunch, Toni settled in the living room to play some on her Xbox.

She was thoroughly entertained for a while until her phone rang with a call from an unknown number. The area code was her hometown, which was the only reason she answered it, watching her in game character get headshot as she abandoned her controller.

“Hello?” she greeted, half expecting the call to be a wrong number situation.

“Toni,” a gruff voice greeted. Toni immediately recognized the voice as her uncle Tristan, and she tensed as she sat up straight.

“Tristan,” she greeted coldly. “How the hell did you get my number?”

“Found an old voicemail on your Nana’s answering machine,” he answered, and Toni groaned. “Can’t believe you moved out of town without even telling your ol’ uncle.”

“Gee, can’t believe I forgot to mention it someone I haven’t spoken to in almost five years,” Toni said sarcastically. “What the hell do you want? Sweet Pea told me you came by the apartment last weekend acting like an asshole.”

“I was just offended that you told your grandparents about your move, but not me! You know I gave up a lot to raise you,” he told her, frustration evident in his voice. He wasn’t doing a very good job of trying to seem friendly, but that had never really been his area of expertise. “Least you could do is let me know where you’re living. So I can keep tabs on you.”

Toni snorted with unamused laughter. “Yeah. Keep tabs on me. Right.” She stood up from the couch, thinking she should probably go up to her room, but then she remembered that Veronica and Betty were out, so she decided she should probably stay away from Cheryl’s room. She paced back and forth in the living room, her gaze down, and said, “Is there any particular reason you’re calling me now?”

“Like I said! Want to keep tabs on you.”

“Great, well, I’m just fine. No need to worry,” she insisted, her voice coming out just as sarcastic as she meant it to.

“Can’t believe you still talk to me that way. Your momma would be disappointed.”

“Shut up, Tristan,” Toni snapped, “I’m not doing this. You can call me all you fucking want, but I’m not giving you my new address. You have literally not cared to ‘keep tabs on me’ in years. I don’t buy that shit for a second.”

“Hey, I hear you got a new gig, and that’s why you moved?” Tristan asked, completely ignoring the previous conversation and Toni’s comments. “Must be a good payin’ one if it was worth pickin’ up and movin’.”

“It’s literally none of your fucking business. Don’t call me again.”

“Listen here, Toni, you better watch—”

Toni hung up the phone before he could finish, and when it rang again a second later, she silenced the call and swiftly blocked the number.

When she finally let out a relieved breath, she looked up and saw that Cheryl was standing by the bottom of the stairs. “Shit. Hey. How much of that did you hear?” she asked with an empty laugh.

“Uh, not too much,” Cheryl answered, but Toni was pretty sure she was lying. It wasn’t like the conversation had been long, and Toni hadn’t looked up since she stood up. Cheryl could’ve easily heard over half of the conversation. “Sorry. I should’ve just stayed upstairs when I heard you on the phone.”

“No, it’s fine,” Toni insisted with a sigh.

Cheryl slowly ventured further into the downstairs, walking into the kitchen as Toni glanced at her game, which was showing a game over screen from her previous match, wondering if she was in the mood to play it anymore. “I guess you don’t want to talk about?” Cheryl asked all of the sudden, surprising her.

Toni glanced over her shoulder, seeing the redhead coming into the living room with a bowl of cut strawberries. She sat on the couch near where Toni’s Xbox controller were still sitting, and Toni took her seat back as well. Cheryl offered her the bowl of strawberries, and Toni felt her heart skip a beat as she took one of them and popped it in her mouth. When she swallowed, she said, “That was my uncle on the phone. He’s been trying to get ahold of my phone number and my new address. I hadn’t talked to him since I moved out from his place after high school.”

“Oh,” Cheryl said softly, and Toni could practically see gears in her head turning, wondering questions that she wasn’t going to ask aloud. She popped a piece of strawberry in her mouth, and Toni bit down on the inside of her bottom lip, trying to decide how much she should share with her roommate.

“He was my legal guardian from the time I was twelve,” Toni told Cheryl, “and he and my grandparents juggled me between their trailers through middle school and high school. My uncle isn’t a great guy, and he would disappear for weeks at a time, which is why I would end up at my grandparents’ place… it was a shitty situation. But, anyway, he’s never been very good at holding onto money. My grandparents told him that I moved for a job, and now he’s trying to reach me after I have deliberately refused to speak to him since moving out.”

“So he’s asking for money?” Cheryl assumed.

“He hasn’t outright yet, but I’m pretty sure that’s what he wants. He’s been mooching off of his parents, my grandparents, for like, his whole life. And I’m not surprised if he thinks that since he had to take care of me for six years, he thinks he’s entitled to some sort of money because of it,” Toni muttered, rolling her eyes. Cheryl offered her the bowl again, and Toni smiled a little as she took another cut strawberry.

“That’s not a fun situation,” Cheryl said softly, “I’m sorry.”

“Yeah. I blocked his number just now, though, so hopefully he won’t try to keep calling. I figure he’ll give up eventually. The only people back home who have this address are Sweet Pea and Fangs, and they wouldn’t tell him, so.”

“You didn’t tell your grandparents?”

“No, they would definitely tell him,” Toni told her. “They don’t really see how much of an asshole he is. They think that because we’re all family, we should all put each other first. Especially my Nana. She’s big on that shit.”

Cheryl laughed a little, a hollow laugh. “Put family first. Now, that is a concept that _my_ family could never fathom.”

Toni frowned. “Really?”

“Yeah. Well, my family would like for me to put them first. But they don’t give a shit about what I want or need,” Cheryl explained, rolling her eyes. “As if I’m their family, but they just aren’t mine.”

“I’m sorry,” Toni apologized, seeing Cheryl’s eyes get a little watery. “That sounds hard.”

Cheryl heaved a sigh, eating another berry. “So… your parents?”

“Yeah… they passed away when I was a kid,” Toni said, pursing her lips together.

“I’m sorry.”

Toni shrugged, leaning back a little into the couch and feeling her Xbox controller behind her. “It’s okay,” she murmured, as she busied herself grabbing the controller out from behind her and setting it on the coffee table.

“What are you playing?” Cheryl asked, and Toni took a second to realize she was talking about the Xbox.

“Oh,” Toni said, glancing up at the game, “it’s just an online first person shooter game.”

“You can go back to playing, if you want,” Cheryl said. “I don’t mind. I was just in desperate need of a study break.”

Toni hesitated, but then grabbed her controller and relaxed into the couch as she went to join another lobby online. The round started, and she focused on the game intently, not really noticing that Cheryl was watching her play.

After a minute or so, Cheryl asked, “So, what are you even supposed to be doing?”

Toni glanced at the redhead quickly, seeing her knit eyebrows as she stared at the TV. Toni bit on the inside of her lip. “You see that little mini-map in the bottom corner?”

“Mmhmm.”

“That blue dot. My team is trying to get there and take the checkpoint. The other team is defending it.”

“What do you get if you win?”

“XP.”

“That’s like, experience points?”

“Right,” Toni answered with a little chuckle. “You get more depending on how many kills you got and whether or not you won and how many times you died. It’s timed, see? If we haven’t taken the checkpoint by the time ends, we lose.”

“So after you win, then what?” Cheryl wondered.

Toni chuckled. “You do it again?”

“Again?” Cheryl demanded.

“Well, there’s different types of matches to play, but yeah. There’s not like a story or anything. At least not in this game,” Toni explained.

“That sounds unbelievably boring.”

“Well, it’s fun though,” Toni insisted, “see, watch this.” She had her character in a good stealth spot, so she pulled out a sniper rifle and lined it up with one of the enemy guys many meters away. She lined it up perfectly and got a perfect headshot.

“You shot him,” Cheryl said, bored. “That’s not fun, that’s just violent.”

Toni snickered. “Well, guess this isn’t the game for you, then.”

Cheryl laughed a little at that. “Yeah, you don’t say.”

Toni played two matches while Cheryl watched her, commenting every now and then on the game, and then she called it quits and started to shut down the Xbox.

“Sorry,” Cheryl said, “if my comments made you not want to play.”

“Oh, no, they didn’t,” Toni insisted, “I’ve just been playing for a while, getting kind of bored.”

“Told you, it’s boring.”

Toni couldn’t even fight her grin. Cheryl’s bowl of strawberries was empty now, and had been set on the coffee table, so Cheryl was just lounging on the couch next to her. “Do you have to get back to studying?” Toni wondered.

“Actually, I don’t think I’m going to study anymore today,” Cheryl admitted. “It is Saturday, after all.”

“So what’s your new plan then?”

Cheryl shrugged, glancing at the now blank TV. “Maybe I’ll put on a movie.”

“What kind of movies do you like?” Toni wondered, setting her Xbox controller on the coffee and able rotating so that she was leaning against the arm of the couch, her feet extending toward Cheryl, but she kept her legs bent so as not to touch the other girl.

Cheryl hummed. “I don’t know, stuff that doesn’t get boring.” Toni laughed at that, giving the other girl a funny look.

“That is such a bad answer. Whether something is boring is totally subjective.” Cheryl blushed a little as Toni added, “Like how you think my game is boring.” The little pink tint to Cheryl’s cheeks made Toni’s heart skip a beat, and she bit down on the inside of her lower lip. “Well, if you watch something _not_ boring, maybe I’ll join you?”

“Maybe you should just pick something,” Cheryl told her with an eyeroll, “I have a feeling we won’t agree on what’s not boring.”

Toni laughed, feeling incredibly comfortable sitting here and talking with Cheryl, joking back and forth. “I’m really not picky, just put on whatever you want.”

“Fine,” Cheryl said, grabbing the TV remote. Toni quickly discovered that the TV had a Roku built in, and so Cheryl was easily able to access Netflix and whatever else she wanted, presumably. “Oh, Betty has some popcorn bags on her pantry shelf.”

Toni gave the redhead a curious look. “I thought other people’s shelves were strictly off limits?”

Cheryl rolled her eyes. “It’s one bag of popcorn. She won’t even notice. Come on, you’re making me pick a movie, you go make us some popcorn.”

“I’m _making_ you pick a movie?” Toni asked back, lifting an eyebrow. Nevertheless, Toni got off of the couch and moved into the kitchen, an easy smile on her face as she found the box of popcorn bags on Betty’s incredibly neatly organized shelf in the pantry.

As the popcorn cooked in the microwave, Toni glanced into the living room where Cheryl was looking for a movie still. “So, I guess you don’t like butter on your popcorn?”

Toni could practically see Cheryl’s eyes rolling as she said, without looking back toward Toni, “You can put butter on the popcorn.”

Toni grinned as she grabbed butter and salt to put on the popcorn. When it was done, she prepared it the way she liked it—but she went a _little_ light on the butter—in a big bowl, before grabbing some napkins, turning out the kitchen light, and walking back into the living room. “Any idea when Veronica and Betty are going to be back?” Toni wondered, as she set the bowl of popcorn on the coffee table.

“Nope,” Cheryl answered. “But usually them going shopping also implies dinner which sometimes results in them going to a party, which can mean they’re gone all night.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. They’ll probably text if they’re going to a party, though, so that we don’t worry.”

“Did you pick a movie?” Toni asked, relaxing into the couch and looking up at the TV.

“This one has almost five stars,” Cheryl said. The movie looked like some kind of thriller and Toni hadn’t heard of it. She shrugged.

“Okay.”

* * *

Toni went into the movie not knowing anything about it, and she would be lying if she said that she knew much more about it by the time it ended. Her mind had definitely not been on the TV screen, even if she’d forced her eyes to stay there as much as possible. No, her mind was completely focused on the woman sitting next to her. She’d found herself sitting fairly close to the redhead in order for them to share popcorn, and aside from when she’d helped a drunk Cheryl upstairs, she hadn’t been this close to her ever. She knew that she was being totally obsessive, unable to stop thinking about how close they sat together, but she really couldn’t help it. Being so close to Cheryl was becoming intoxicating.

When the credits were rolling, Cheryl set the mostly empty popcorn bowl on the table in front of them and stretched her arms up over her head, her left bicep brushing against Toni’s shoulder and making her breath catch in her throat. “Did you like it?” Cheryl asked.

“Huh?” Toni asked, eyebrows raising a little as she rotated her head to face Cheryl.

“The movie.”

“Oh. Yeah, it was fine.”

Cheryl didn’t looked convinced, and as she dropped her hands into her lap, she lifted an eyebrow and asked, “What was your favorite part?”

“The… end?” Toni offered, giving the girl an innocent smile.

Cheryl rolled her eyes, frowning a little as she said, “You could’ve suggested a different movie.”

“No, seriously, it’s fine,” Toni assured her, “I just… I guess I just kept getting kind of checked out. Guess I’m sort of scatterbrained today.”

Suddenly, both of their phones buzzed, and as Toni grabbed hers, she saw that she had a text from Veronica.

**Group Message: Veronica, Betty, and Cheryl**

**Veronica – Hey babes! Betty and I are going with Josie to a party at Kevin’s friend’s place! You guys wanna join? We can come pick you up if you want!**

Toni glanced over at Cheryl, who was reading the same text. After a second, the woman’s dark eyes bounced up and met Toni’s gaze for a brief second before they jumped away and landed on the still rolling credits of the movie.

“You gonna go to the party?” Toni wondered, since Cheryl hadn’t said anything.

“I’m not really in the mood, but yeah I might,” Cheryl said. “I haven’t seen Josie all week. You?”

“Nah.” Toni got up from the couch, grabbing the empty popcorn bowl and their used napkins and bringing them to the kitchen. “It feels weird going to college parties now that I’m not in college.”

Cheryl snickered. “Didn’t you graduate like, not even five months ago?”

“Okay, well, to be fair, I also didn’t go to your school, so I literally don’t know anyone. And I haven’t been the kind of person to get drunk with strangers in a few years, so.”

“Fair,” Cheryl breathed out. Toni’s phone buzzed again, and she glanced down at the new text.

**Cheryl – Come pick me up.**

“Well, thanks for keeping me company for a while,” Toni said with a chuckle.

“No problem,” Cheryl returned, getting up from the couch. “Guess I better go get changed.”

“Mm. Don’t forget to eat real food before you get drunk,” Toni advised, getting a playful glare from Cheryl.

“Who said I’m going to get drunk? Also, I’m pretty sure by your eating habits, popcorn and strawberries just about qualifies for a real meal.”

“Ha.”

Cheryl smirked, grabbing her phone and heading for the stairs. Toni released a sigh as she heard Cheryl reach the top of the staircase. Part of her wanted to just go to the stupid college party, but she also knew that Cheryl was going to hang out with Josie and her friends, and that Toni would end up being a weird wallflower again. And she’d rather her day hanging out with Cheryl just end here, because it had actually been a lot of fun.

And that night, she forced herself to fall asleep before it got too late, because otherwise she would see a drunk Cheryl come home, and she didn’t think she could handle drunk Cheryl when she’d barely managed to hold herself together around sober Cheryl all day.

* * *

On Sunday, Toni didn’t see much of Cheryl. The younger woman had apparently gotten up early to go to the gym, which Toni was surprised about considering the fact that she’d been out partying the night before. But she was gone for most of the morning, and in the late morning, Toni went out to get her groceries for the week. And even through the rest of the day, somehow, they hardly crossed paths.

Toni hoped it wasn’t intentional on Cheryl’s part—that she wasn’t uncomfortable by the fact that they’d hung out for so long on Saturday after talking about their shitty family situations. Toni found herself thinking back to her conversations with Cheryl on Saturday too much, actually, realizing how easy it had been to open up to her about her uncle. It made her ache to talk to Cheryl more. She felt like a stupid teenager with this crush, and she didn’t know how she’d convinced herself that she could just endure it for however long was necessary. It was eating her up any moment that she was at home, especially if she was in the same room as her, and she had no idea how to stop it.

Toni didn’t want to tell either of her best friends about the crush, because she knew they would most definitely make fun of her, and she felt like telling them would make it more real. That said, she was in absolute desperate need to admit to someone—as if that might help. And maybe it would, because maybe someone could talk some sense into her.

So at work on Monday, when she’d spent half of her lunch break with her thoughts drifting off to a certain redhead who’d she’d seen all sweaty again this morning, and Peaches asked her, “Girl, what’s up with you?” she finally spilled.

“Okay, I need to get this out to someone,” Toni said, cringing at herself as she realized what she was about to do.

“Ooh, I love drama, tell me.”

“I have a stupid crush on one of my stupid roommates,” Toni groaned out.

“Oh shit,” Peaches said, eyes widening in surprise. “A crush huh? Are we back in high school?”

Toni groaned again, running her hand through her hair. “It feels like it. God, I feel so stupid, too, I just… she was a huge bitch to me when I moved in, but now we’re sort of friends, I think? And every time I’m with her I just…” She trailed off, sure that Peaches would understand.

“That’s rough. But I mean, what’s so wrong with it? You’re both adults. Sleep with her.”

Toni looked at Peaches with an unamused expression. “I can’t just sleep with her.”

“Why? Does she not like chicks?”

“She does, actually, but—”

“So what’s the problem?”

“She’s my _roommate_.”

“So?”

“So what if something happens and then we get awkward around each other and it ruins the dynamic with our other roommates?” Toni demanded.

Peaches looked unconvinced. “Like I said, you’re both adults. So are your other roommates. It doesn’t have to be so dramatic.” Toni rolled her eyes at her friend.

“You are no help.”

“What? If you’re into her and she’s into you, I just feel like that’s the best approach.” Toni groaned again, taking another bite of the sandwich she’d made herself for lunch. “Fine, you want a different suggestion?”

“Yes, please.”

“Sleep with someone else,” Peaches suggested. “Maybe it’ll get your mind off of her.”

Toni opened her mouth to object, but the suggestion actually made sense. It wasn’t like she had any reason _not_ to sleep with someone. That said, she hadn’t slept with very many people recently, and she wasn’t sure that she was down to have a one night stand just to deal with this crush. She sighed. “There has to be an option that isn’t sleeping with someone, right?”

“In my opinion, sleeping with someone is always the solution.”

Toni sighed, leaning back in her chair. “I’m fucked.”

“Not yet,” Peaches teased, grinning widely as Toni groaned, kicking at her leg under the table as she started cackling.

Toni really was fucked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do y'all think of everything now? Where do you guys think Cheryl's head's at? What about Toni's? :P  
> Again, no update tomorrow! Incidentally, I'll be working on a bunch of homework tomorrow. So maybe it works out. Chapter 7 will come out on Thursday instead <3
> 
> I know most of y'all probably saw on Twitter, but guysss I fucking got the job I've been interviewing for the past few weeks! My start date will be sometime after this semester! It's like, a real ass full time job?! I'm so freaking happy!
> 
> Transitioning to a less fun topic, I'm a little bummed that I haven't gotten any new ideas rolling out yet. I started a WIP Choni fic that I really like the concept for, but it's taken me weeks to crank out 8,000 words, so I'm not sure it's the right thing for me right now. I really hope I can come up with something before this story ends, but with the semester is like, the fullest swing ever, chances may not be very high :(  
> But good thing this story is complete <3
> 
> Thank you all so much for being here, and for the great response to this story <3 I appreciate you all, and I'll see you with the next chapter on Thursday!

**Author's Note:**

> Hello again!  
> Thanks so much for spending some of your day here reading this story, I appreciate it so much! Whether you're just reading, or also kudosing, bookmarking, or commenting, I know that your time is valuable, and I thank you for taking the time to be here!  
> You can always hit me up on Twitter @ToriWrtsStories if you would like to check up on fanfic progress, talk about choni with me, hear about other things going on in my life, or whatever! I love to chat :)
> 
> Remember, updates are every two days! Thanks again, and I hope you have a lovely rest of your day!


End file.
